Queens Blade: Soul of Cold Steel!
by Miruto21
Summary: In the land of Gainos, a huge battle to decide the queen is about to commence. With the competition underway there are many forces doing whatever it takes to stop it from undergoing as planned. Could a young man and his comrades defend against the factions and races of enemies trying to overtake the continent? Read on and find out!
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

* * *

 ** _The Queen's Blade, a ritual formed by the gods to decide the strongest and most beautiful Queen. The one who is worthy to be Queen. The one who is worthy to rule over the country of Gainos mustn't be decided with words but action. Many who seek the title of queen strive for Honor, Fame and Wealth. These motives are what drive many warriors from young to old, to participate in this battle to determine the strongest Queen to rule ALL!_**

* * *

Near the border of the Vance Territory; scaling up the mountain wall beside the road, was a young man with the intent to find any leads pointing towards a certain "target" he was searching for.

"OH MY GOD!" Shouted the young man as he pulls himself onto the ledge with a shaky hand. He looked to be about the age of 19 and was in a tired dirtied state.

"I…I m-made IT!" The young man breathed out in exhaustion.

"What took you so long?"

"W-Wait, you…I…ergh! Just shut up…!" The young man tiredly looks up in the air to see his levitating companion lazily sit back on his levitating pillow.

The levitating young man looked to be about 18 years old with brown hair, purple eyes and light airy orange robes which belonged on a wizard except for its iron shoulder pads and chest plate. He also wore light brown boots and black gloves. The young man gave his companion a lazy wave,

"Yo."

"Don't you "Yo" me, Jean." The man spat.

"What, you mad? Mad that I was able to beat you up here?" Jean raised an eyebrow.

"No, it's because you didn't bother to remind me that you can, well, I don't know use teleportation magic!"

"You keep forgetting to ask, so I never saw the reason to bother bringing it up when we arrived." Jean shrugged.

"Fair point, but you could have tried to at least make my climb up here faster!"

"Oh, really? How do you suppose I do that?"

"By using your magic to levitate me to the top!"

"I can only make one object float with me at a time." Jean yawned to recline on his floating pillow.

"So what? You couldn't put your weapon away for a few minutes to bring me up here!?" Michael pointed towards the pillow/weapon (?).

"Exactly, I needed my rest for climbing such a huge Cliffside, so I guess you can say I weighed my options pretty well." Jean hugged his pillow and rocked back and forth in the air, "But it would be more of a chore to try and explain something so complex to you."

"So that pillow has more value than me!?"

"*YAWN!* Well, it seems I was wrong. You did translate what I mean…" Jean rubbed his tired eyes.

Looking at his partner with a dirty glare Michael sighed and laid back down, "You know what? Forget it. I'm just going to freaking lay here, and take a break before we handle that reported demon in the area."

"Are you sure you want to do that? It could find us before we get to it?"

"Yup, we were able conceal ourselves the moment we got here, so it will take a while for the demon to find us up here." Michael lazily waved his hand back and forth.

"True..." Jean yawned, but then noticed a malicious aura unmask its presence,

"Hm? **Devil Eyes!"**

Jean looked over the cliff to observe the demon's location, his eyes shined as he casted a spell to scope out any demonic activity in the area, and after seeing visible traces of dark aura filling the aura he could tell they were right on the money for arriving to this location.

"So, what are we going to do when you're ready?"

"Hm?"

"Your plan. Do you have one?"

"Of course I have a plan."

"And it is?"

"I jump off the cliff, and cut the son of a bitch down in cold blood! Then catch them by surprise and get information from her about the Swamp Witch and then BAM! Mission accomplished."

Jean facepalmed after hearing that plan, "You realize if you jumped off this cliff you would miss the road entirely and fall off the mountain."

"Jean…"

"Yeah?" Jean looked back towards his companion, who sat back up with a serious look on his face.

 _'_ _Could he have a plan for not missing the road?' Jean was impressed._

"Just leave it…" Michael crossed his arms.

"…!" Jean was surprised feeling some maturity from Michael for the first time in a while however he became disappointed because the man wasn't done.

"To luck."

 ***SMACK!***

"And here I was thinking you would think this through." Jean face palmed one more time.

"Huh, who said I wasn't?" Michael tilts his head.

"Oh, dear god…" Jean pinched his temples.

Hearing footsteps, Jean notices a cloaked traveler making their way towards the border to the Queen's Country, Gainos. From the looks of their clean white robe he could only suggest they were of a noble family or a new adventurer.

Sadly for them, they were about to encounter a creature that could end their adventure before it even begins.

Forming from out of nowhere a pile of pink slime forms a well-endowed woman's body with a pink outward appearance and pink hair. Its eyes were blue with the pupils shaped like clovers. It wore a scantily pink transparent jacket with the hair of its bangs framing down over its breasts as hands to cover her fully exposed chest.

"Uh…Michael, I think I found our target."

"Cool, now we just take a breather and get the sucker for some answers!" Michael kicked back and relaxed.

"Actually that should be the last thing on our list."

"Huh? Why?"

"Because it's fighting a traveler." Jean said nonchalantly.

"Aw, come on!" Michael immediately rushes towards the ledge and see the traveler engaging the Pink Slime Demon.

The traveler seemed a bit inexperienced with a blade so they began to leave themselves wide open to the pink demon's attacks. The Slime created a sword from their hand to counter the traveler's attacks and allowed its opponents weapon to go through it before regenerating itself back to normal.

"Wow, this guy really sucks at fighting." Michael whistled.

"Shouldn't we do something about this?" Jean followed the battle's turnout closely as Michael sighed with shut eyes.

"Nah, if we interrupted a man's fight against a demon then what would we call ourselves?"

"Men?"

"No, Glory Hogs! And I will not break the pride of a man even if it means he will die by that monst-!"

"The adventurer is a female."

"Say what?"

"Look." Michael followed Jean's finger to the fight to see the cloaked traveler unveiled to be a blonde long haired woman with blue eyes as he clothing was now in tatters.

"O-Okay, things just got a little serious, but according to the rumors the demon is only taking out participants of the Queens Blade, right?"

"That was what the innkeeper told us."

"Good, and considering her poor skills in combat, she won't even make it, so it will be a good bet that she'll run away in fear once the demon loses interest. We just have to hope that she doesn't provoke it." Michael crossed his arms.

Looking at the fight once more, Jean notices the demon's change in expression as it turned violent and effortlessly grabbed the woman by the neck and started to strangle her.

"Michael…"

"She provoked it didn't she?"

"Yup."

"Son of a bitch!" Michael growled as he stomps on the ledge and reaches back for the hilt of his sword.

"Hey, wait a minute don't forget, you'll fall off the mountainside if you're not careful." Jean warned with a tired look.

"Jean…just remember…" Michael whispered, "Leave it to…Luuuuuuuuuuuck~!"

Jean kicked Michael off the edge.

"Yehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw~!" Michael laughed as he spiraled off the cliff.

"Just handle the demon, you idiot…" Jean went back to laying down on his pillow (?) in peace.

"So you two are here, too?" Stepping up behind the lazy Jean was someone familiar to him.

"Oh, it's you." Jean yawned, but looked generally surprised.

The pink slime woman who strangled her opponent said with a sadistic smile, "You just called me a monster, didn't you? No one who's ever said that has lived long enough to regret it. Are you scared? You should be because killing you will save me any future trouble!"

Struggling for air, the blonde girl's eyes started to roll back as any air she could manage was slowly getting crushed out of her neck. The fear of death was so much for her that she was about to wet herself out of fear.

"Bye-Bye~!" The Pink Slime decided to crush the girl's windpipe had it not been interrupted by a black blade cutting its hand off.

"W-What!?" The slime monster staggered back as it saw the appearance of Michael getting between it and the gasping Blonde Woman.

"…E...er…?"

"High leveled Demons should know that picking on a newbie adventurer isn't fair."

Catching the woman with a single arm, Michael starts to point his Jet-Black long sword at the creature before him and gathered around the tip of the blade a black aura with a red tint around it in the shape of a sphere.

"Who the hell are you!?" The pink slime demanded as it held its handless arm as it tries to avoid the incoming attack. But it was too slow.

Grinning Michael responds with, "Michael, nice to meet you. Now if you don't mind please disappear, **Onyx Blast!"** Shooting itself out of sphere form the concentrated aura shaped itself into a large blast of energy that went through the Pink Slime creature's chest with enough force to knock it off the side of the cliff.

 _A few moments before it realizes it was falling off the cliff the creature looked at the black long sword the man had and gasped, 'Wasn't that a… Devils Arm? How can a human be able to?'_

The Pink Slime Monster fell off the side of the mountain as it works to regenerate itself, the blast wasn't concentrated enough to hurt it mentally, so it decided to heal itself and retreat, knowing that anymore involvement could get it seriously hurt.

"Damn, it's still not enough to wound it." Michael was about to put down the girl and leap after the creature, but still could hear the sound of choking coming from her.

 _'_ _Shoot that demon is still choking her with its detached hand!' Michael placed the girl down and saw the shaking hand wringing the life out of her._

"Gu…." The woman gasps for air which couldn't get through her shut throat.

"Don't worry. Just relax." Michael covers his right hand with black aura and dispels the Pink Slime's active hand which melts off and follows after its main body.

Regaining her breath the woman catches one more glance at Michael before passing out from her near fatal experience.

"Whew…" Michael wiped his forehead, "That was a close one."

"It sure was…"

"Huh? Jean when did you get here?" Michael gasped to see his companion kneeling right beside him.

Putting a finger to Michael's lips, Jean shushed, "Magic…"

"Riiiiiight." Michael trailed off with a confused expression on his face.

"So did you manage to get any information from that Slime Demon about the Swamp Witch?"

"No, I was too busy dispelling that thing's hand from choking this girl." Michael continued to look at the half naked blonde woman, "She's fine for now. Just needs to catch her breath and relax."

"Great… That just means we're going to have to find another lead then." Jean stood up.

"Yup." Michael groaned and sat down.

"What should we do with the girl?"

"Probably hand her over to someone."

"Like who?"

"I don't freaking know. You think we can just drop her off at some random person's home wrapped up in a bow like this?" Michael asked.

"No." Jean deadpanned.

"Yeah…where are we even going to find a human sized bow at this time of day…" Michael rubbed his chin as Jean facepalmed.

Realizing someone important, Jean looked back to Michael and said, "Oh, that's right. You jumped off the cliff before you noticed her."

"Jean, who are you talking abo-Boogeh!" Thrown at the back of Michael's head was a mace which had enough impact to make his forehead bleed. Raising his head and screaming in frustration Michael cries out, "Who the hell threw that!?"

"Her." Jean points out the culprit.

"Why you... I ou-outta!" Michael stops dead in his tracks as he looks to find a towering woman about 5'10 standing tall over him.

It was a very beautiful women who wore her bright red hair long. With a red headband adorned on her head, an ornate tight jacket as her top, with a detailed piece going around her neck. She wears black thong panties and a detailed red belt over them. On her arms, she has armguards high up on her arms, with feathers protruding from them. She also as a thigh-length tattoo on her right leg, and sandals. She held a shield in one hand as her mace was right beside her feet.

"R-Risty?" Michael gulped.

"Ought to what?" The woman shot Michael a dirty glare.

"You know what, I'll just take back that comment." Michael crawled himself away from the woman by crawling back.

"Is that any way to treat an old friend of yours, Michael?" Jean teased as he folded his arms behind his back like gentlemen.

"You stay out of this!" Michael hissed.

"I would have to agree with Jean, Michael, is that any way to treat an old "friend"?" Risty walked up and grabbed the man by the collar and lifted him up, face to face.

Michael blinked for a moment then coughed, "Well, um, you're particularly more brash looking than usual…?"

"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Jean asked.

"Y-Yeah." Michael was thrown to the ground, "Ouch!"

"Look, I didn't come here to see you. I came for her." Risty walks over to the unconscious woman.

"Wait, why?" Michael immediately recovers to separate the two.

"Because she's a wanted woman."

"Really? She doesn't seem to be the criminal type to me. Her swordsmanship seems rather pathetic." Jean said.

"She's not wanted in that kind of way. She's wanted because she's the daughter of Count Vance, Leina Vance, young sister to Claudette Vance, the "Thundercloud General." Risty's revelation shocked both Michael and Jean.

"Wait, so you mean this girl right here is wanted by her father to return home?" Michael looked back to the girl, and rubbed his chin.

"That's what I just said, so allow me to take her off your hands." Risty reached out for the girl until Michael stops her.

"What now?"

Michael and Jean looked between each other and messily whispered incoherent words before turning back to her.

"Risty, we highly suggest you take us with you and split up the reward." Michael said, stoically.

"Excuse me, why would I do that?" Risty wasn't getting swayed.

"Because we're a little short on gold." Michael shrugged.

"And how is that my problem?" Risty's eyebrow raised.

"Come on, we're barely getting by, and Jean keeps eating all of the bread crusts whenever I'm not paying attention." Michael pointed at Jean accusingly.

"You can't prove that." Jean said.

"You're eating some right now!" Michael pointed at the bag of bread crusts in Jean's arm.

"This is worth any punishment that you can give me." Jean nonchalantly ate the breadcrusts.

Michael growled and sent his companion a glare, but Jean still continued eating, "We were pickpocketed by someone at the inn inside the border town."

"Really, you two were that gullible to get tricked by something so simple?" Risty laughed with an amused smile.

"Hey, we were attacked by a snake, okay. What would you do if it was about to bite your face off while you're eating!" Michael tried to justify their embarrassing moment.

"Obviously, I would kill the snake and add it as a side course for my meal." Risty smirked.

"So, are you going to let us come with you and split the gold or what?"

"Hmm…Let me give it some time to think, no." Risty rejected Michael's offer without hesitation and pushed him to the side.

Stepping up, Jean said, "Fine, what do you wish we trade to allow us to get half the reward?"

"A trade, huh?" Risty takes a quick glance at Michael before rushing over to Jean, "Okay, if you two want to join then make sure to…*Whisper! Whisper!*"

Stepping up, Risty whispered something into Jean's ear and pulls back with a serious look on her face.

"That's it? Nothing more?" Jean still had his lazy look on but he seemed a little surprised.

"Yes, that's all I want." Risty nodded.

"Fine, then I'll make sure we leave for there after we're done." Jean made the deal.

"Wait, so we can go with you?" Michael looked at Risty curiously.

"Yes, you can but you have to carry the girl until we reach a safe place to make camp." Risty advised.

"Alright, doesn't seem too hard." Michael walks over to the blonde woman then starts to sweatdrop and hesitate to touch her.

"What is it?" Jean asked as he saw the distressed Michael.

"She, uh…wet herself." Michael remembered how terrified the girl was when she fought that demon and forgot this could happen for any normal person afraid of meeting their untimely end.

"Not my problem. You wanted to tag along so make sure not to slow us down!" Risty raised a hand and walked ahead of the group.

Looking at ground and turning to Jean, Michael asks, "Say Jean if you could be so kind as to use your magic to levita-."

Snapping his fingers to summon his weapon (?) in the form of a pillow, Jean lays back on it and says, "The pillow always comes first, Michael, the pillow always comes first."

Jean floats after Risty as Michael resigns himself to his fate.

"Fine, I guess I'll be the one to do all the work!" Michael picks up the unconscious Leina onto his back and started walking in the direction Risty was leading them. Looking behind himself, Michael noticed a slight disturbance before choosing to ignore it for now. There was something following them.

 _'_ _It looks like we'll be getting more than just our money's worth once we return this girl back.' Michael looked back to Leina before smiling, 'Anyways, at least things will get lively.'_

Travelling to Count Vance's Castle Michael and his group intend to return the runaway daughter of Count Vance, Leina Vance.

* * *

 **Skit: Taking Responsibility!**

* * *

 **Risty: It's almost dark, so we should camp out around this area.**

 **Jean: I agree. I've been rather tired with how far we traveled down this road.**

 **Michael: Yeah, it's understandable because you're not the one carrying an unconscious girl who just relieved herself the whole way here.**

 **Risty: Quit your complaining, you were the one, who wanted to come for half of the reward, so just do your part. If you don't want the money, then you can just leave her with me.**

 **Michael: Yeah, I know we can do that, but after I went out of my way to help her, I feel like I should at least take some responsibility and escort her back home.**

 **Jean: So could that be your other reason for asking Risty to do this for us?**

 **Michael: Probably, I mean I don't feel like letting someone I just met down.**

 **Risty: …**

 **Jean *Facepalms*: Michael…**

 **Michael: What?**

 **Risty: Responsibility for another person? That's strange hearing that come from you of all people. I thought your *duty* outweighed personal affairs? Whatever that duty was in the first place.**

 **Michael *looking apologetic*: Risty, you know…I…**

 **Risty: Forget it. Just put down the girl and start making camp.**

 ***Risty leaves both Michael and Jean alone.***

 **Michael: Man, I need to know when to shut up.**

 **Jean: That would have been wise considering your current situation with her. But don't worry, she'll understand soon enough.**

 **Michael: It's been a year since that happened. I don't think she'll be lenient on me anymore. Not after what I did…**

 **[SKIT END]**

* * *

 **Next Chapter- Havoc ensues in the Vance Castle!**

* * *

 **OC Main Character:**

 **Name: Michael Chevalier**

 **Age: 19**

 **Alias: Master Swordsman, Black Steeled Devil**

 **Appearance: Michael is a tall dark skinned young man with black spikey hair. In stature, he is about 6 feet 0 in height. He has silver eyes. He is well built for a young man his age and holds a muscular body from his past training with his father and Adoptive Mother. Michael wears a Dark Blue Coat, underneath it he has a black long-sleeved shirt with white outlines and a thin light steel chest plate crafted for him by his adoptive mother. He wears black worn out pants and brown boots with a few worn out straps.**

 **Abilities/Weapons:**

\- **Skilled in Swordplay**

\- **Hand to Hand Combat Expert**

\- **Intermediate Blacksmith**

 **Weapon: [Onyx Blade]-**

 **One of the 7 Devil Arms of the Underworld, it once was a Sacred Treasure of the Underworld public before Lloyd, Michael's father stole it and used it as a tool to slay the weapons on creators. The weapon is a Jet Black Long sword with 3 crimson gems near the hilt of the blade. Its ability is to unleash vast amounts of demon power sealed into it at the cost of the user's stamina.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Havoc ensues in the Vance Castle!**

* * *

Stirring herself awake, the blonde lady wakes up to the sound of rushing water. Groggily picking herself up, she finds herself on, and looked over her shoulder to see a flowing creek.

"Uh…?"

 _'_ _Where am I? I was right by the border what could hav-!' The girl flashes back to the slime demon she was almost killed by and bit her lip, 'That's right that devil almost killed me…'_

Sitting up the girl looks to see that her body was clean of any wounds and if memory serves correctly she was washed from her past "accident." Questions popped up in her head, but the main thing she wanted to know was…

"Who did all of this?" She muttered.

She sits up to see that she was laying on top of a flat stoned boulder in the middle of the creek. She looked forward only to see the naked back of Michael angrily mumbling stuff to himself. She caught wind of the large birthmark with the shape of some strange crest.

"Stupid Risty…Stupid Jean… making me carry this stupid girl who pissed on herself. Now I have to clean myself after doing that crap…" Michael pours a handful of water over his head and shakes it off.

"Man, that's fresh! Nothing like a fresh bath to rejuvenate the body." Michael sighed in relief and was ready to get out before he turned around and noticed the cautious gaze of the girl.

"Oh, you're finally awake." Michael's smile brought back a few memories that the girl had when she was throttled by the demon.

"Wait, you're that man, who helped me." She said.

"Oh, so you do remember. Makes this a whole lot easier." Michael scratches his neck.

"Who are you?" The girl questioned.

Sighing and walking up to the girl, Michael squatted down and said, "First things first, let me ask you something. Why did you engage a demon while knowing full well you didn't have the proper battle skills?"

"I-I…" The girl tried looking down as a way to avoid making eye contact with the serious Michael, but instead she found something else that was staring at her. Her face turned red as she kept staring at it.

"Demons are serious business, you know. You can't just walk up to them all willy-nilly and fight them. If I weren't there then you'd probably be dead right now?" Michael didn't receive an answer, "Hey, are you listening to me?"

Michael waved his hand in her face before following her sight all the way down to his "third leg". Looking back up with a blank face, Michael saw the girl slowly burst into tears as she looked him in the eyes and panicked.

Putting a finger to her lips, Michael shook his head and said, "Okay, calm down everything is okay. I mean fair's fair after what happened before."

 _'_ _Before?' The girl panicked as she shirked away from the naked man who still wasn't covering up his dignity._

"I mean who do you think washed you after you peed yourself. It was so gross that he mess almost lingered on my clothes. It was so nasty that I wanted to throw up, but I didn't because I would have dirtied myself in the process. Is that what you want on your conscious, do you want this terrible cycle of dirtiness to continue!?" Michael ranted, "So try to be at least grateful that I considered to give you a nice clean up! So now we're even."

The girl shook her head in disagreement even more terrified than before.

Looking over his shoulders, Michael panicked, "W-Wait, I know you're about to scream, but at least give me a chance to-!"

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Michael!" The furious voice of a familiar redhead was rushing towards him.

"Dammit…Bugooeh!" Michael's face paled as he turned back to be clobbered in the face by a blunt mace.

"Just what in the hell do you think you're doing over here!" Risty storms in and picks up the beaten man by his hair.

"I wasn't doing anything…" Michael tried to defend himself.

"Then explain why you were over her naked? Planning on defiling the goods before we turned her back in?" Risty growled.

"N-No, she just woke up! I swear! Take the words of this honorable swordsman seriously." Michael pleaded.

"Honorable?"

"Take the words of this humble swordsman seriously!" Michael screamed.

"Humble?" Jean popped up from behind Risty.

"Okay, just take the words of this swordsman seriously! Please!" Michael begged.

"Seriously, Michael, you never learn in these situations, do you?" Jean shook his head, "Makes me wonder whether you were born under a rock."

"You're the last person I want to hear this from, Jean!"

"First of all… you had a better chance of taking her when she was unconscious, or if you were clever enough you could have used some cloth to gag so we couldn't hear the screams. Seriously, use that head of yours or both "heads" in this case." Jean gave a thumbs up.

Michael shushed his companion in fear for his life.

"I knew it you were up to something!" Risty looked pissed as hell.

"Wait, that's just Jean being-!"

"Me!" Jean stoically jumps up and cheers for himself.

"I never did anything to the chick after or before she woke up." Michael shook his head.

"You're naked over her naked body in the middle of a creek. Who's to say you didn't just get the urge before we noticed, huh?" Risty cracked her knuckles.

"There's a good explanation on that as well, but wait…why do you care so much about this anyways?"

That earned another crushing squeeze from Risty to his head.

"Arrgh! Your crushing my head let me go!" Michael's head was bleeding by the snake grip Risty had over him.

"I can't even leave you to handle one simple job, like cleaning up our bounty!" Risty wasn't forgiving of this man and wouldn't let him go.

"Bounty?" The girl perks up as she looks over to the relenting Risty and Jean who looked over at her with neutrality as Michael, who was now saved from the girl's grasp.

Later, they all gathered up in the campfire to brief the girl of what will happen to her and what she faced. At the same time, Michael was rubbing his bruised face in pain as he sat away from the group in bitterness.

 _'_ _I can never be a bride now…' Leina cried._

"It wasn't even my fault…" Michael pouted, "Say Jean could you heal me with your magic."

"If I do that you won't learn anything." Jean levitated on his pillow (?) and read through his book which seemed rather ominous.

"I can't believe you would even try that with the Count's daughter. You know you could be executed for raping her, right?" Risty shook her head.

"I. Didn't. Try. Anything!" Michael tried to drill that fact into their skulls.

Watching this go on by herself, the girl was a little out of place as she gazed at the man who was levitating in mid-air. Such trickery like that was rare in the castle and the spectacle only made her more curious until Risty cuts in while digging through her bag,

"You must have been crazy to face off against that nasty demon."

"..?"

"Yeah, I'm speaking to you, Leina Vance, daughter of Count Vance." Risty still rummaged through Leina's belongings.

"How did you know who I was?" Leina looked up at Jean, who suggestively coughed while picking up the wanted poster, he still read through his book uninterested in the discussion at the moment.

"We're here to take you back to your home and receive our pay. No hard feelings." Risty said.

"But you can't I have no intention of going back!" Leina defensively stood up.

"Listen kid, you don't have a say in the matter. After that battle you lost and I had to take over."

"Well, actually I took over the battle." Michael raised his hand.

Risty glared at Michael, who backs away, "I'll just sit over there and be quiet."

"Yeah, you do that. Listen, like I said. Since you lost that makes you my spoils and I feel like you're more valuable to me returned back to your family."

"But I never asked for your help!" Leina responded childishly as a response.

"So would you have rather died by that demon?" Leina whips her head back to see the pair of red eyes, Jean looked at her with, they didn't show any remorse, anger or pity they were just observing and blank.

"If you couldn't stand the thought of returning home, then you should be more than ready to die, right?"

"No, that's not it…" Leina looked away.

"I see, then you're just a selfish child, who ran away from home."

"That's not it eith-!"

Risty pulls out a fancy mirror from Leina's belongings with some gold coins, "Oooh, not bad. I bet I could get a good price for this."

"Wait, why are you going through my stuff? That belongs to me!" Leina shouted.

"Because you're a prize from battle, so you and your belongings are mine to keep."

"You thief!"

"Listen carefully, kid. In battle, the winner takes all, that's the law of the land, I am Risty the "Benevolent Bandit of the Wild." Risty introduced herself.

"And who are they?" Leina shifted her attention to the other young men.

"Hmph! Well, I'm glad you asked because I am-!"

"My name is Jean Ruinosus "The Necromancer" we may never meet again, so don't ask too many questions about me." Jean returned to reading his book.

"What the hell, you just cut me off you basta-!"

"Shhh! I'm reading." Jean shushed.

"You can't just-!"

"Shhhh! I'm READING." Jean stressed before returning to his book.

"Fine, whatever and I'm Micha-!"

"He's not important." Risty pushes Michael aside.

"Hey!"

"All that you should know is that your returning home whether you like it or not." Risty shower her authority and placed a hand on her hip as she looked down at the frustrated girl.

Michael looked at the girl's demeanor and hardened his expression.

Going to bed, with everyone taking shifts to make sure the prisoner wouldn't get away, Michael volunteered for once to save himself the trouble of being forced to by Risty. Sitting across from each other both, Michael and Leina sat near the fire as Jean and Risty slept.

Looking away from Michael's eyesight, Leina still tried to suppress the traumatic image that was between his legs while Michael played around with the campfire with a twig.

"So, uh… you sure you don't want to go back?"

Leina looks up to see the silence breaker still talk, "I mean go back home."

"No, I don't." Leina's reply was filled with contempt.

 _'_ _Wow, that bad?' Michael thought, 'I guess being the child of a rich guy does have its downsides.'_

Michael couldn't come up with a reply except, "Oh…"

The cold nightly winds filled the place they sat in and snuffed out the fire while blowing against everyone's bodies. Michael with his jacket on was unaffected while Leina whose articles of clothing were torn shivered from the cold night.

Sensing this Michael pulls off his jacket and puts it over her back.

"Is this?" Leina reached back to grab it and found herself comfortably warm.

"Consider that an…ugh, apology for earlier." Michael didn't know why he did admitted to his false crime.

"It looks like you _can_ learn some lessons." Jean wakes up from sleep and stares at Michael.

"Gaah!"

"Kya!"

"What?" Jean looks over his back to the pair.

"What did I say about listening to me while you sleep? It's freaking creepy!"

"My brain can both rest and function properly at the same time, so blame yourself for forgetting that. Anyways good night." Jean falls back to sleep.

"Geez, dealing with that guy is a pain." Michael scratched his head.

"Are you sure you'll be alright without this?" Leina asked.

"Yeah, just make sure to give it back when you're done using it." Michael yawns and sits back down.

"O-Okay." Leina lays down and prepares to go to sleep.

A strong breeze blows against Michael as he stiffens with a forced smile, "Yep, that's cold. That's really cold…but come on, Michael. You've been trained to do this for a while now, so you can push through this…Gugh!"

Another cold breeze blew past him as he yelped from the cold.

Later in the morning, the group was drawing near the Vance Castle after a quick hike through the rocky paths.

"Achoo~!" Michael sneezed.

"I'm quite surprised, Michael." Jean rubbed his chin.

"Thanks for saying bless you, Jean." Michael said sarcastically, "And what are you on about?"

"You of all people got a cold? I thought idiots couldn't get it, but if it happened to you then it may be seriously contagious." Jean floated away from Michael who was angered at that comment.

"Oi! Want to say that to my-my-m-Achoooo~!" Michael sneezed and wiped his nose.

 _'_ _He probably got sick because of me. I wonder…should I return his jacket now?' Leina thought as she kept her attention on Michael, but was interrupted by Risty, who shoved her forward rather hard._

"Hey, watch what you're doing!" Leina growled while Risty looked at her with narrow eyes before sighing.

"My bad, you were walking too slow. So, I gave you a friendly push like this."

Risty pushed Leina again.

"Hey!"

Leina could have sworn she felt a little hostility, but chose to ignore it.

"We're finally here." Risty proceeded to lead the group to the castle, "Just before us is the castle of our wealthy ruler, Count Vance. In other words; your back home, Leina."

"Just let me go there's a reason why I chose to leave in the first place." Leina closed her eyes.

"Can I ask you something? Why is there a reward for a 300 gold coin bounty on your head? A father doing this makes me almost sad for you."

"Really, then release me."

"Sorry, kid, but I'm not that sad for you." Risty scoffed and pushes Leina forward, "Now move it."

* * *

 **Skit: First comes Freedom, then comes what?**

* * *

 **Michael: Say Leina can I ask you something?**

 **Leina: What is it?**

 **Michael: I've been think about the bounty and wanted to know… How many attempts have you taken to run away from home?**

 **Leina: …! So, you realized that, huh?**

 **Michael: Well, it was a dead giveaway since fathers don't normally put bounties that high on their runaway child, and if it's for 300 gold, then it should naturally get the attention of every bounty hunter out there.**

 **Leina: *Sigh!* I've ran away from home 4 times this being my 5** **th** **and possibly last time, before they tighten security around my last escape route.**

 **Michael: Okay, but don't you want to stay with your father since he obviously cares for you?**

 **Leina: I…I wouldn't call being locked away as a voiceless prize as caring, not especially from my father.**

 **Michael: So it's that kind of relationship between you and your dad, huh? Well, I won't pry any further, so what were your plans when you decided to break free?**

 **Leina: My plans? Before I could think of doing something like that, I'd have to break out of my own home, first.**

 **Michael: You sure you don't have anything to aspire for when you get free?**

 **Leina: It's a little hard when Elina gets too close to even let me think, and I want to at least learn how to fend for myself when I enter the world by myself.**

 **Michael: Elina?**

 **Leina *Looked down sad*: O-Oh, it's no one. Don't worry about it. Just forget I said anything. I just wish that I can make my own decisions for once without being forced to do what others want.**

 **Michael *Pauses before grinning*: … Alright. Now I know what to do.**

 **Leina: …?**

* * *

Crossing the bridge to the castle and looking at the neat architecture it and the castle had Risty commented,

"Talk about living in style. Too bad many people starve just to keep this place so well-maintained. The way your father has been governing his people is plainly wrong. Be sure to mention that to him after this, okay?"

"Why bother? Nothing I say will ever reach him." Leina looked downcast.

"So I guess the count has been keeping a tight reign over his land and his daughters as well. I'm not that surprised." Jean stated out of the blue.

"Jean!" Michael growled.

"Why get so defensive? It's only the truth. His grip over the land has been tightened ever since the death of his counte-"

"Jean!" Michael found that Leina's expression turned more depressed and serious as her hair covered her eyes.

"Forgive me for speaking out of turn." Jean apologized with a bow.

"No, don't apologize you're right. I guess father has changed since mother's death." Leina denied the apology.

 _'_ _Sometimes you have to read the mood, Jean.' Michael said with his eyes as Jean closed his eyes with indifference towards the subject, 'And this atmosphere around the castle, I can sense so much heaviness and negativity. I wouldn't blame Leina for running away because of this.'_

"Looks like we're already here." Risty grinned, happy to receive her pay.

"Let's just get this over with." Leina submitted herself to her fate while Michael and Jean watched in the background.

Sensing the atmosphere of the castle as well, Jean could sense a subtle tone of dread within of it and he could tell that it's be prolonged for quite some time.

"You feel it too?"

"Yes, it appears the Count has an even colder household than I thought." Jean continued, "But that's not what you're asking about is it?" Jean could also sense the presence of another being somewhere giving off malice intent.

"That demon. It's around here, I can feel it." Michael kept the conversation between the two of them, quietly.

"It must be after you for attacking it the other day."

"How? I made sure to dial down the aura of my blade to keep it from her tailing us. Who else would it be follow-?" Michael turned back to Leina and grunted, "Crap!"

"Now this is bad." Jean shook his head and pinched his temples.

"Of course it's bad! The demon wants to kill her because she provoked it yesterday." Michael whispered back in a loud voice.

"We'll handle the demon, after we're done here just make sure to get the gold, so we can later stock up on supplies." Jean begins to float away with his pillow (?) in hand.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"To do some stuff."

"Well, can't your stuff wait for a while?"

"No, my stuff is more important then you're stuff. Now make sure to get the gold before we handle the demon, and Michael make sure not to, and I can't stress this enough, screw this entire deal over." Jean flew off.

"Freaking bastard telling me what to do. I can make sure things won't go from 0 to a 100, real quick." Michael rushes over to Risty.

"Who's there!" The guard post pulled out crossbows and inspected their visitors.

 _'_ _Damn they seem uptight to just bring out their weapons like that! What's going on with this place?'_

Looking up at the guard posts above the bridge Risty shouted, "I think it's time to get paid, I have something that would interest the Vance Family! Granted she's a little worse for wear…"

"Lady Leina?"

"It's Lady Leina! Quick someone inform Lady Elina at once!"

"Open the gates!"

Opening the gates to the castle a group of guards stood straight up facing the three in front. Although there was one of them rushing towards the group, hut she seemed to be more than just an ordinary soldier.

"Leiiiina~!"

A beautiful young woman in her late teens ran out with a metal spear with decorative designs on the blade and shaft. She stood at a height of 168 cm (5'6"). Her armor bore a feline motif. She wore a metal cat-eared headband and a golden necklace with a sapphire pendant. On her chest she wore a metal brassiere partly painted blue, a white and black striped vest that has high ends and is open on her torso, but closes and forms a front and back tassel as it descends below her navel, she wears a white and black striped full-length glove on her right arm and a metal arm guard on her left arm. She wears black thong panties with an ornate black belt over the tassel, protective and support wrappings were on her knees as white and black striped shoes completes her outfit.

"Here we go again…" Leina exhausted huffed as the younger girl stopped only a few inches away from her.

"Huh?" Michael grew a question mark over his head.

"You're home at last! I'm sorry that I couldn't find you." The girl gushes out with a blush and a kitty like smile.

"It wasn't my intention to come back." Leina replied.

"All that matters is that you're safe and sound~!" The girl giggles, "My heart's about to burst with joy!"

 _'_ _Aw, She doesn't look that bad.' Michael could tell that it was Leina's sister just by looking at the resemblance._

Looking down at Leina's half naked body Elina questioned, "Why are you dressed like that? Nobody gets that close to you, but me! Now you've been defiled!"

 _'_ _What the fu-!' Not just Michael, but Risty was also taken back by that comment as well._

"I haven't been defiled, Elina." Leina casually answered.

"What a relief, your purity is one of your best qualities that I admire the most!"

 _'_ _Okay, is this incest because this is new to me? I'm just glad I don't have to deal with any younger sibling like that, but I'm pretty sure there's a freaking limit to how much you show adoration.' Michael thought with a strained expression._

But as minutes passed on, the sibling exchange began to take way longer than it should which forced Risty to finally speak up.

"Enough already. How about you pay up."

 _'_ _Damn. Way to be subtle, at least let them catch up before acting ru-!' Michael never got to finish that thought._

"Shut up, you filthy dog!" Elina's personality turned harsh and brutal towards Risty.

"What did you say?" Risty was offended by the unexpected comment.

"Remember your place commoner." Elina glared at Risty with so much contempt that made even Michael wince.

 _'_ _Is this chick bipolar or something!? N-No, not bipolar, insane! Do you really want to get on Risty's bad side? No, she looks to be just as wild as Risty is, too. Crap, I need to think of something before I get hit with the crossfire.' Michael looked at the two mad girls and sweatdropped._

* * *

Unknown to them, flying through the air was a young angel with two wings that weren't symmetrical, she has ear length light blue hair and green eyes. She is wearing the uniform of a lower ranking angel, which consisted of a white camisole with a skirt, polka-dots panties, and steel plate leggings. She also wears a steel gauntlet on her right arm and a long dueling glove on her left.

She missed the first battle a day ago, and had missed her chance to broadcast the fight for the Queens Blade, but now was finally her chance.

"All right, I made it on time!" The blue haired angel pulled out a book filled with potential participants for the tournament,

"And they seem to be raring to fight already! My duty as an angel is to watch the Queens Blade battles. I'm so embarrassed that I missed the last one. Now let's see the red head is Risty "The Benevolent Bandit of the Wild" says here she's a powerful fighter with both power and defense on her side, and the other one is Elina "Captain of the Vance Guard troop" she's in top form and holds more speed over Risty, so this could get heated up into a fun match!"

* * *

"We have no money to pay for dogs, so if you leave immediately, I'll let this rude attitude of yours pass." Elina warned.

"Oh, really that's how you want to do this." Risty pulls out her mace, "Let's make it 3000 gold coins then. A ransom instead of a reward."

"Threatening the Vance Family? You don't seem to value your life."

"The same could be said to you, you spoilt little witch."

"What did you just call me, you ugly dog?"

Elina backs away and readies her spear. She wasn't going to back down and neither was Risty.

 _'_ _Dammit! Now things are getting serious.' Michael puts himself between the two and says,_

"Okay, that's enough you two." Michael placed his hands on the two girls to separate them.

"Michael, this doesn't concern you anymore." Risty growled.

"Don't touch me you, dirty man, or I'll have your head next!" Elina threw Michael's hand off of her.

"Look, why don't we try to talk things out before you two kill each other, and I was the one who saved Leina in the first place, so it's my business altogether. We were clearly told of a bounty put on Leina's head, so we brought her like promised, so why can't you just give us the reward?" Michael turns to Elina.

"Why should we even consider paying you lowly rats for a job, we could have gotten done?" Elina narrowed her eyes at Michael. She didn't really like men and the fact that her sister was captured by one along with that thief didn't lighten her mood.

"Then why even send out bounty posters in the first place?" Michael questioned.

"That was a decision of the Count himself now I won't tell you again! Leave or else, I will make sure you two suffer!" Elina gripped her spear tightly while barely holding back, if she wished she could have easily thrusted it through the man's chest and be done with him. But she didn't feel like getting herself dirty especially with Leina watching.

"See, Michael? This kid isn't listening to reason, so let's just handle this like a ransom and be done!" Risty growled.

"Your one to talk! You're not even listening to reason either!" Michael shouted, then picked his ear,

"Well, I say, we at least try and this is coming from the guy who barely understands the meaning of reason."

"Why should I even listen to you?"

"Because it was me, who saved Leina from that demon, who carried her unconscious body halfway through this trip, washed her down after her "accident" and finally I was the one who ensured she was kept healthy by giving her my jacket to keep warm. So I have to say that I contributed a great amount towards this cause than you, so I intend to-holy crap move!"

Michael pushes Risty away from Erina's thrusted spear.

"What the hell was that for?" Michael screamed.

Elina was shaking in rage after hearing all that stuff about Michael getting so close to Leina, inexplicitly. The thought of her sister being touched by the likes of some random man made her blood boil as she growls madly, "You pig… how dare you?"

"Oh, come on. What did I do to piss you?" Michael asked.

"You washed my sister, meaning you stripped her of her clothes and used your filthy hands on her and t-touched the places that only I was allowed to touch!" Elina roared as she thrusts her spear at Michael who gasps and jumps back.

"This girl has a big sister complex and did she really just say all of that out loud?" Michael looked at a red faced Leina who shook her head, embarrassed that her sister was exaggerating things.

"I'll bring you both in for putting my sister in that pitiful state!" Elina charges forward and thrusts her spear yet again but swirled the shaft giving it a dangerous vibe.

"Risty, jump!"

"Wha-!"

Michael pushed Risty out of the way and dodged an incoming air projectile made from Elina's spear, the attack even damaged the bridge.

"Oh, good! It looks like the fights about to start! Now let's begi-huh?" The angel watching over them takes notice of the thunderclouds above her.

"Are you okay?" Michael went to help Risty.

"Let go…I'm fine." Risty slaps Michael's hand away and gets up.

 _'_ _That's as good as a response that I'll get from her.' Michael sighed in relief._

"Elina, what are you doing?" Leina exclaimed.

"Don't worry, sister. I'll make sure they never touch you again; especially that disgusting man, I'll make sure to tear out his dirty tongue." Elina glared at Michael.

"Why am I given a specific threat, I barely even said anything to you!" Michael screamed in shock.

"Because men are the absolute worst. You always look at women with those perverted eyes and take them for granted whenever things don't go the way you want them to!" Elina hissed.

"Would you look at that, Michael, she was spot on about you on her first try." Risty glared at Michael.

"Okay, I am not getting into this with you right now, Risty." Michael turns to Risty, then Elina, "And you need to chill. Not all guys are the same as you think! And I'm not one to judge, but the way you look at your sister is even more perverted than me doing it."

"…So you admit it! You were looking at my sister's breasts perversely!"

"What the hell? No one said anything about breasts! You're the only one looking at your sister's tits, you disgusting incest-practicing little sister! All I said was-!"

"Enough!"

Along with the new voice that echoed out onto the bridge also came striking down was a large thunderbolt which separated the two sides. The thunderbolt however gad drawn some unintentional outside damage to the angel about to cast the Queen's Blade announcement for all to watch.

"Kyaaaaah!" The angel gets blown away but not without someone catching before they fall.

"Be careful." The shadow levitates away from the castle and to the nearby shore near the lake.

"Huh?" The angel opens her eyes to see the handsome face of her rescuer.

 _'_ _Oh my goodness, he's so-so-so!' The angel cooed in her head as her face turns red._

"That was a rookie mistake getting caught up in your success and getting between the crossfire of a fight. Remember, the fighters are the only ones, who should be getting attacked not you, okay?" The rescuer lectured the angel, but it didn't reach her ears due to the fact that her rescuer was exactly the ideal man she was into.

"Trainees never seem to listen and you're no exception as I thought, Nanael." The man yawned as he starts to float down to the shore.

The handsome man revealing to be Jean looked over his shoulder tiredly and said, "You two better come up with a good plan because things just took a turn for the worse."

 _'_ _Now even the Thundercloud General is involved. What a mess…' Jean forms a large magic circle in front of him. Carving glyphs that were hard to make out onto the outer rings._

 _'_ _I just have to hope things won't escalate.' Jean wiped a few tired tears from his eyes before focusing on the magic circle._

"Okay, who is it now?" Michael grunts and picks himself up, the force of the thunderclap caught him off guard.

Emerging from the smoke cloud was a mature and beautiful woman with long straight red with a detailed metal headpiece. A black wrap that covers her neck and collarbone. A metal bikini top and small black thong panties, and on her right arm she has a black and gold bracer armband on her upper arm. On the left arm is a black wrap used to cover her fingers and a metal detailed arm-guard. On her lower body, she has a large black flowing cloth wrap on her hips and black thigh-high boots.

"My sister, what are you doing here?" Elina bowed her head in respect.

"Heh, what luck it's Claudette Vance the "Thundercloud General"." Risty smirked.

"Claudette…" Michael blinked as he gazed at the General closely before shaking his head.

 _'_ _Come on, Michael you have to stay focused there may be more enemies, but if you and Risty take 'em together then you can come to an understanding.'_

"Elina, pay them now. Or are you trying to disgrace the Count's name." Claudette hefts her greatsword over her shoulder, as she joins everyone on the drawbridge. In her free hand she held a bag of gold.

"Wait, seriously?" Michael gasped.

"That wasn't my intention, my sister forgive me." Elina retreated back to Leina with a loving smile that Leina tried to ignore.

"At least someone around here has some reason." Risty pushes her way past Michael and reaches out for the bag of gold.

 _'_ _Wait a minute…I have a bad feeling about this.' Michael thought._

But when she took it, she found that the General had grabbed her wrist like a bear trap, not letting its prize go.

"Hey, what gives?" Risty attempted shirk her wrist away but a few sparks of lightning tickles over her skin as Claudette stare at her condescendingly.

"I, thank you for returning her and if things weren't as they are, I would happily give you this reward and walk away."

 _'_ _Fucking called it!' Michael gasped._

"But our records have you known as a thief in our territory. So expect a lenient sentence in the dungeon after this." Claudette summoned a bolt of lightning that ran through her sword and into Risty, who screamed from the intense pain and faints.

"You only have yourself to blame." Claudette looked down upon the unconscious bandit.

 _'_ _Well, I'd call that karma, but I can't just leave her here to rot in prison!' Michael recklessly charged in with his hand on the handle of his blade._

"Hm!" Claudette's eyes widen as she saw the companion of the bandit rush right at her.

"Don't worry, Risty! I'm coming to save you!" Michael blindly runs at the General.

"You too wish to suffer the same fate?"

"You have my friend, so I don't have a choice anymore now do I!?"

"Fine then."

Claudette assumed that he was the thief's cohort and points her greatsword at him, shooting a thunderbolt at him.

"Damn!" Michael shouted as the thunderbolt exploded and caused smoke to pick up in front of him.

"Michael!" Leina called out, she knew Claudette would never hold back if she used any thunder strikes in her attacks.

"You brought this on yourself. Guards take these two thieves to the dunge-!" Claudette turns her back on the probably defeated Michael.

"Where are you going?"

Claudette gasps, she looks back to find that the man she attacked was unscathed, as he used the flat side of his black steeled blade to guard the attack.

"Phew, that was a close one. Fighting against lightning really keeps you on your toes." Michael sighed in relief.

"How did you-?" Claudette was speechless.

"The first rule of battle is to never assume your first strike will be the final one." Michael held up his sword and glared at the General with a deadly glare, "Because it will be the **last** attack you'll ever make."

"Fine, I will at least admit my blunder for confusing you for another lowly thief, so I guess I'll now take you down with full force!" Claudette charged ahead with her blade ready to cleave into Michael.

"Bring it!" Michael charged forward and swings his blade to clash with Claudette. The moment their blades clashed the resounding sound of steel resonated within the vicinity of the area. The strong blow indicated the sheer strength that both forces were exerting.

Pushing each other back to gain more room to cut into one another, they swung a multitude of strikes and thrusts meant to cut down their opponent. Both were using long swords to battle, but Michael's blade seemed less heavier than Claudette, so he had the edge in speed, but lacked the sheer strength that Claudette had to fortify herself with.

With one last heavy attack from both sides, they were pushed away by the equal force of their attacks.

"Guh!" Claudette winced as she stopped herself from skidding back.

"Sister!" Elina cried out in worry.

"Crap!" Stabbing his blade into the floor, Michael barely managed to keep himself standing. He was extremely exhausted by exchange with Claudette, her strength was on another level compared to his, she might even be near Risty's level of raw strength.

 _'_ _She's not called a General for nothing. I can't even crack through her defense with my advantage with speed.' Michael thought, and tried to catch his breath._

"Guards! Now quickly surround him!" Elina still had time to order her troops to circle the tiring swordsman.

"Crap!" Michael panicked as the army of soldiers charged at him. Thinking of something on the fly, Michael forced himself to stand up and turned to face Leina with a smile, "Leina, make sure to hold onto my jacket for a little while longer, and Risty, make sure to hold on for just a while longer! I have a plan!"

"You won't be going anywhere! Guards, hurry!" The guards charged in with their spears ready to plunge into the man.

Stabbing the tip of his blade into the bridge, Michael surrounds himself with a jet black aura which starts to build up into a thicker state. Until the tension held within it became too much.

It even made Elina gasp with Leina trembling behind her as Claudette just watched closely.

 _'_ _This man…what is he?' Claudette calmly examined the man._

Slowly standing up through the immense aura, Michael stands up and looks around at the surrounding girls before grinning.

"See ya!" Michael falls to one knee and places his hand atop the pommel of the sword, and activated his technique.

A gleam of purple light filled the bridge before a huge explosion over took most of it. As the impact settles down the ones revealed standing were only Claudette as well as Elina, who was seen using her body to shield Leina.

Most of the guards laid on the ground, battered after the explosion as their target was gone before the smoke even cleared.

Biting her lip, Claudette snarled, "For the soldiers, who can still move inform and separate into parties to find any sightings of that man! I want every nook and cranny checked! Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The soldiers broke off to do their tasks.

"Claudette." Leina walks up to her older sister with worry written on her face. But it wasn't her sister she was concerned for but the unconscious Risty and missing Michael.

"Elina, take the bandit to the dungeon. I'll escort Leina back to her chambers to prepare for tonight's event."

"Y-Yes sister."

Elina really wanted to disapprove of a job away from her sister, but knew talking back would earn the ire of her older sister, so she decided to do as she was told. Hefting the motionless, Risty over her shoulder and dragged her off. She exaggerated a gag and started muttering silent insults towards the bandit plebian.

Watching them leave, Leina could only sweat from the pressure when she came face to face with her sister who said in the coldest words, probably angered that the event for the lords of the land were held off because of Leina's abrupt absence.

"Now shall we?" Claudette walked ahead.

Looking behind herself as the drawbridge closes, Leina drops her head and nods, "Y-Yes…"

She knew running would be pointless if Claudette was this close by and resigned herself to her fate.

* * *

At the docks in the Vance Manor, was a panting Michael, who was wringing out his wet clothes while staying hidden as a couple of guards passed by the door. After he unveiled his technique as a distraction he used the smoke to dive into the moat surrounding the castle. It took a while with a few traps underneath, but he managed to get through.

"I made it, but security here seems pretty tight." Michael panted as he places on his semi-dried, long-sleeved shirt and hides behind the frame of the entrance/exit. Looking outside he spotted a pair of slacking soldiers gossiping.

"Now that Lady Leina is home, we can finally relax knowing the announcement of the new Count will get handled smoothly tonight."

"I know. By the way things were going I thought Lady Claudette would blow a fuse after getting so much of the rap from the Count for letting Lady Leina escape under her watch."

"Things haven't been the same like before, now the Count has been growing impatient and spiteful towards Lady Claudette and Elina. He even arranged a marriage for Lady Leina without her consent or any sort of forewarning about her fiancé."

"I know, it's probably because of the Countess dy-!"

"You idiot, you know we're not supposed to talk about that!"

"R-Right, forgive me."

 _'_ _Man, these guards suck… I mean I'm literally breathing hard next to the door and they can't even notice me. Anyways that explains why this place smells so angsty. It probably is the death of the Countess causing so much grief. I can get why Leina wants to leave this place now.' Michael sympathized with the girl,_

 _'_ _Her freedom is very limited like she's some sort of doll to the count to control." Michael listened for more info._

"Did you also hear that Lady Elina had locked the thief in the dungeon with no food for 5 days?"

 _'_ _Please don't be talking about Risty. Please don't be talking about Risty. Please don't be talking about-!'_

"You mean the thief, who kept screaming about being a benevolent bandit?"

"Dammit!" Michael quietly shouted.

"Hey did you hear that?"

"Nah, probably some other soldiers getting yelled at by Lady Claudette."

"Then we should probably do some work before we get yelled at too."

The two soldiers rushed off leaving the hallway clear for Michael to enter.

"Wow. Worst guards ever." Michael groaned then looked around, "Okay, first I have to free Risty…"

Taking a step forward, Michael falls on a knee, "Phew, okay maybe showing off like that was a bad idea. Using the Onyx Blade takes a whole lot out of my stamina, and it didn't help that I didn't fight against Claudette either.

"I will just have to wait and take it easy until tonight, so our escape isn't out in the day light. Plus, I'm sure the demon after Leina will make its move…"

The same malice filled presence shook, Michael out of his stupor as he looks behind him towards the docks.

"Bingo, now time to move." Michael rushes off to find a suitable place to hide.

The entire castle was like a maze, Michael was stuck between hiding miniscule places to hide or running from a few soldiers, who suspected any unusual activity in an area. Luckily, he came across the lobby of the castle without garnering any attention. However, he wasn't alone.

"What the-!?" Michael looked around and decided to hide behind one of the pillars in the room as footsteps approached the lobby.

"Just what in the world were you thinking? Being a fool like that and running away isn't appropriate for the next Countess." Claudette said.

the encroaching footsteps of what revealed to be Claudette's and Leina's were heard approaching.

Looking over the pillar, Michael caught notice that it was Claudette and Leina, who was now wearing more appropriate clothing and freed of her binds. He did notice that she was holding his jacket in her arms which made him feel relieved, and grateful towards her.

"Just what in the world were you thinking? Being a fool like that and running away isn't appropriate for the next Countess." Claudette said.

"That's why I wanted to run away! I don't want to be the next Countess at all. You're more qualified for the title than me!" Leina tried to push her future roll away to her sister; but Claudette wasn't budging an inch.

It wasn't Leina's decision about who would be the Countess but the Count himself.

"The Count has already decided on this matter! This discussion is over." Claudette prepares to take off.

"I don't intend to listen to father forever. From now on I intend to make my own decisions." Leina mustered up the courage to speak out, despite the fear of her sister hitting her for speaking out of place.

 _'_ _Go Leina!' Michael quietly cheered._

"Watch your tongue!" Claudette mercilessly slaps Leina across the cheek.

"Guh!" Leina winced in pain _._

 _'_ _Wow, what a bitch!' Michael growled._

"One of the lords will be announced as a successor for the Count this night. I expect you to behave and be ready for it. Do I make myself clear?"

"C-Claudette, but I don't…"

"Leina, do I make myself **clear?"** Claudette stood over Leina with an authoritative posture.

"Y-Yes…" Leina looked down saddened.

"My sister!" Elina rushes over and bows her head to Claudette, "I just finished placing that wretched dog in the dungeon."

"Good, now then, Elina, I entrust Leina to you. Make sure to keep a close eye on her."

"Yes, ma'am!" Elina runs up and hugs Leina from behind.

 _'_ _Yup, that's incest.' Michael sighed then quietly sneaks off to continue finding a spot to properly hide until midnight._

Managing with an empty servant's quarter, Michael made sure to hide himself well until dark. The servants didn't return probably because of their preparation and services at the event to choose the next Count. So, he waited and waited until the time to act was nigh.

With fewer guards blocking the path to the dungeon, Michael was able to track down Risty before things got too risky. He managed to deal with each guard a paralyzing blow which will soon recover after a few hours.

"Freeze, intruder! Resistance is futil-ugh!" The soldier thrusts her spear at Michael before it gets taken from her and was knocked out by the flat side of its blade.

"Sorry about that. Nothing personal." Michael digs through her armor to pull out keys to the cage doors.

Seeing Risty on the ground exhausted, Michael picks up the keys and chuckled, "Need help?"

Risty looked at him with a thankful gaze, but ends giving him a spiteful glare, "Took you long enough."

Unlocking the cage gates and retrieving her equipment, Risty and Michael run into the hallways in an attempt to escape. Coming to a stop in a two-way corridor, Michael and Risty looked at both directions.

"Okay, so the docks were this way so…" Michael pointed to the right.

"Wait, they may have some treasury around here, so let's just look around and get the reward, plus the compensation we deserve." Risty looked to the left.

"Reward? Risty, right now we should focus on getting out of here alive. This place is already fortified and I think Claudette still suspects that I'm here." Also, Michael had already sensed the presence of the demon within the castle and wanted to rush things along. The sooner he took care of it the better.

"Are you serious? Do you think I'll let this go empty handed? You should know by now that I'm getting to that treasury, and I will get the money that I came here for. Isn't that what you wanted, too?"

Risty was close up to Michael giving him that accusing stare.

"Yes, before things went to complete shit with you getting captured and me escaping them! Not to mention wherever the fuck Jean went! And-!" Michael kept on getting that irritating feeling at the back of his head. The demon was slowly getting closer to its target and the malice it was spreading was growing by the second.

"What's with that look?" Risty questioned.

"It's nothing." Michael avoided eye contact with her.

Looking at Michael's sweaty face, Risty groaned, "Your lying, aren't you? You probably want to handle your "business" before mine, don't you?"

"What?" Michael blinked.

"You terrible at keeping a lie. Your face always has that weird smile when you tell a small phib."

"I don't know what your talking about." Michael wore a huge, weird smile.

"Look. surely by now you must know that the Thundercloud general would have those escape points blocked off. Knowing that you sneaked in before the search was completely done. So, we might as well use the time they find out that I escaped to get what we need. Then we can escape like you want, deal?" Risty compromised and bargained with Michael.

 _'_ _Damn…she got me there, but at least we're in a hurry now!' Michael sighed._

"Deal, and thanks for being understanding." Michael smiled.

Ignoring his thanks, Risty muttered spitefully, "Understanding? Yeah right, we're just going along with whatever secret agenda you have again? Nothing new…"

"Huh, Risty did you say something?" Michael had actually caught that last comment but simply watched as the Bandit walked past him.

"Let's get moving, asshole." Was all Risty could say.

 _'_ _Crap, dealing with her isn't as easy like before…' Michael followed scratching the back of his neck._

Walking through the dark hallways and searching through each room until they came across the treasury itself. It was easy to find because of its huge freaking door that outmatched every other door they passed by.

"Jackpot~!" Risty giggled as she giddily holds a palm full of gold coins over a treasure chest full of them. The entire treasury was filled with them including priceless gems and artifacts which would sell for millions.

"So how much are you taking?" Michael asked.

"What a stupid question. I'm taking all of it." Risty grinned.

"All of it?" Michael's eyebrow twitched, "Isn't that a little too much to steal from a Count."

"He had it coming with his terrible governing over this own land, so we'll call this poetic justice." Risty began dumping the gold coins into the large bag that she secretly hid with herself should the moment to steal anything arise.

"Yeah…" Michael looked around to stop to look at a glass case and what it held inside, the contents gave Michael an idea as he chuckled.

"Hey, Risty?"

"What?" Risty poured one of the few remaining chests full of gold into the large sack.

"Do you think we have enough time to make one more stop?" Michael proceeded to break the glass case with a strong blow with his elbow.

Soon enough an alarm was raised to notify the disappearance of the imprisoned bandit. The guards were rushing around the castle's perimeters in search of the escapee.

"Well, we've been noticed now…" Michael sighed as he ran across the rooftop by himself while Risty was going along different route. Apparently, Risty found the notion of wasting anymore time lingering around wouldn't benefit the both of them, so she suggested he could either escape with her or go off and do what he wants by himself.

"Geez! What's her deal? When I want to do something, she gets all huffy about it, but when she wants to do something she gives me an ultimatum which ends up making me feel like the bad guy." Michael gasped once a few of the search lights almost shined on his body.

 _'_ _That was close… I wonder which room Leina is in?' Michael made sure to check each window as he ran atop of the roof._

Hearing heavy moans from one nearby window, Michael said, "Is that Leina crying? What happened at the event?"

Looking through the window, Michael's face turned into complete self-loathing as he plainly backs up from the window with a stoic expression, "Nope, no…that wasn't Leina, but Elina holding a picture of Leina, and she that wasn't crying…"

Scarred for life once more by another traumatic scene, Michael continued his search.

* * *

Exhausted and sick with the way the things were going during the Succession event, Leina decided to rest in her room but not alone at first. Elina followed her with her clingy self as usual and tried many advances that made Leina uncomfortable. It wasn't until she wanted to sleep on her own that made Elina stop her usual obsessive advances.

However she could not sleep due to the alarms ringing about the prisoner escaping filling Leina with hope that Risty was able to escape.

While resting, Leina looks over to the jacket she had kept from Elina's hands. Had she had known that it was Michael's, then she would have tossed it in the trash without a second's thought. Getting out of bed, she picked up the jacket and thought back to the time that Michael saved her from the demon.

Biting her lip, at the thought of it. Frustration started to well up in her for almost getting killed by that demon, Leina said,

"If he wasn't there I could've died… should I have charged at it without dodging? No, I can't always just avoid my opponents. I wonder how Michael can be able to fight head-on like that."

"Because when I fight I do it without fear of dying… no scratch that it's sort of more complicated than that." Michael sat on the windowsill pondering about what to say.

"M-Michael?" Leina gasped as she rushes over to the window.

"Shh!" Michael shushed, "I came to give you something."

"Huh, you do?" Leina moves back as Michael jumps in the room with a huge sack slung over his shoulder.

"Yeah, consider it a-!" Michael smiled, but noticed footsteps approaching the door.

"Quick! Behind here." Leina whispered.

Leina, who reacted quicker made sure to hide Michael behind the curtains as the bedroom door opens to reveal, Claudette who was scanning the room for anything out of the ordinary.

"Excuse the intrusion." Claudette said.

 _'_ _Damn, it's her of all people!' Michael sucked in his lips at the fear of getting caught._

"Of course, Claudette. What is it?" Leina stood in front of the curtains holding them tightly with her hands. If she were to screw that up then Michael would surely be caught.

"I heard the alarm ringing." Leina said.

"The thief, you were captured by broke out of our prison and is hiding in the castle. I'm here instead of the captain of the guard, Elina, so that I may protect you." Claudette scanned how Leina was trembling as she was pressing her back against the curtains.

"Well, there is no need for that, the thief isn't anywhere near here, and shouldn't you be more concerned with the Count's safety than my own?"

"He in fact was the one who ordered me to guard you."

"Father ordered that?" Leina blinked.

 _'_ _Come on, Leina do something to distract her…' Michael sweated._

"Hm…" Claudette took a closer look at the bump behind the curtains.

"I-Is something the matter?" Leina gulped.

"Actually…" Claudette brought herself to say before a call behind her stopped her.

"Leina, are you alright!?" Elina gasped once she entered the room to not only see Leina but Claudette as well, "Claudette, I don't understand. Why are you here?"

Smiling to herself, Claudette answered, "Your job by the orders of the Count, but it appears things are at a stalemate now. I assure you, I'll be **back.** " Claudette walked out the room.

 _'_ _She may have sounded like she was coming back to protect Leina. But I can tell she knew I was here!' Michael sighed in relief._

"All I can say is that I know you're okay. Now remember you can't leave you're chamber." Elina shuts the doors leaving a sweating Leina and Michael in the dark bedroom.

"My goodness, Claudette was so imposing that I couldn't relax…" Leina breathed out the tension built up inside her.

"Thank god." Michael groans as Leina opens the curtains to see him sitting down next to the laid-out equipment of armor and a sword with a unique quality that not even Michael could figure out.

"Are you alright?" Leina calmed down once she saw Michael raise a hand to confirm he is.

"Now consider that a thank you." Michael points towards the armor.

"Thank you?" Leina examined the armor as Michael stood up and scratched his head.

"Yeah, you saved my butt, and even kept my jacket safe for me. Speaking of jacket. Could I…" Michael held his hand out for it.

"O-Of course. Here you go."

"Thanks." Michael takes back his jacket and slips it on, "There now I'm back in the business."

"Wait, isn't this armor an heirloom of mine?" Leina looks back to Michael, who froze up after hearing that, "So you're a thief just like your friend."

"Okay, look it's not considered stealing if I'm giving it back to you, okay, and besides this will better protect you in a fight. Well in a one-sided fight in case you wanted to flee." Michael looked to the side then coughs,

"Either way you need a good push before you take your first step outta here."

"My first step?"

"Of course, you do want to leave, right?" Michael received a nod.

"Then you have to resolve yourself and get ready to face anything getting in your way because if you keep running, you'll always end up where you started." Michael stretched.

Leina's eyes widen as she captured that philosophical meaning, "Michael, are you…?"

Michael jumps out the window and onto the roof tiles, "Remember that if you want something, then you have fight for it with everything you have. Even if you don't have strength yet, you can always rely on the strength you have here." Michael points to her head.

"R-Right."

"Well, I'll see you on the other side." Michael waved then begins to leave before turning back and grinning, "Oh, and make sure to cut your hair while your at it. I think it will suits you better that way!"

"M-My hair, you think I will look better with it being cut?" Leina flushes as she didn't expect the compliment.

"Yeah…" Michael awkwardly answered.

He wasn't really complimenting her, he just saw that hair that long will be a huge liability in battle against opponents, who'll pull at it and use it to their advantage.

"W-Whoa!"

But before he can say anything else, he almost tumbles off the roof, he looks to his right to see a huge explosion of smoke and thunder emit from the wharf side.

"Dammit, that's where Risty went!" Michael rushes over to his companion's aid.

* * *

Inside the burning wharf, Claudette had intercepted Risty with a thunderbolt which destroyed most of the castle's boats making escape impossible. She had expected that the first intruder helped the bandit escape and made sure to confirm it by checking Leina's room before checking the only way of escape left for any escapees.

"Crap! It looks like splitting up was a bad idea after all." Risty cursed as she picks herself up, having barely dodge that sudden lightning strike. Placing down the treasure she had collected, Risty looked over to Claudette with a coy grin.

"Don't suppose you'll let me pass?"

"Not on your life, thief. I'll make sure to crush you!" Claudette's greatsword started to release high volts of electricity as she approaches Risty.

"For the last time, I am the Benevolent Bandit of the Wild! Guess I'm just going to have to kick your ass!" Risty pulls out her mace and blindly charges at Claudette.

"No mere human stands a chance against me as you will soon see!" Claudette points her greatsword while preparing to blast another blast of electricity for Risty who grins at the thrill of the challenge.

 _'_ _Only one way to win a fight and that's to get on with it! To the strongest go the spoils! That is the law of the land!'_

"This going to be one hell of a FIGHT!" Risty roared

* * *

Another explosion shook the castle as Michael hurried on over to the place, he entered the castle from.

"Shit! I have to hurry and help Risty before she gets captured again!" Michael then stops once he felt that malice filled presence again. The demon had finally shown itself. He frantically looked around expecting it to pop out at him.

 _'_ _What now ? Can you just give me a freaking sign as to where you're at! I'm in a hurry!' Michael screamed in his head._

Soon enough an explosion right behind him gives him the sign.

"Oh, I asked for that didn't I…?" Michael then thinks back to the past intent the demon had and who it was after. Also counting that back where the explosion took place was Leina's bedroom.

At that moment, all Michael could say was, "Aw… Crapsicles."

Looking from his left to his right, Michael had debated on who to help and scratched his head crazily, "What now? I have to help Risty or else she'll be taken in by that General and her soldiers, but if I leave Leina alone with the demon she could die…!"

 _'_ _Crap, I have to compare the worst-case scenarios and come up with a choice!' Michael breathed out before looking to the one direction he needed to be at the most._

"Forgive me!" Michael rushes over to aid the person he had chosen.

* * *

Back with Risty and Claudette's fight the pair were now face to face surrounded by the flames and destruction of the brawl. Risty couldn't hit Claudette with her mace despite the speed the woman held over her despite that Risty could have given more damage had she actually made contact with her.

Claudette was also struggling with her fight due to the dexterity Risty had to avoid each thunder blast she had fired. The bandit may have been slow but was quite nimble. If her attacks had just paralyzed her for even a second then this fight would have been hers.

"To make a fool out of the Vance Family will cost you dearly, thief."

"Once again, I am the benevolent bandit of the wild and you should learn not to take things too seriously, Thundercloud General."

Risty smirked, having fun at getting a rip at Claudette, who growled and prepared for another attack while Risty narrowed her eyes.

 _'_ _Now would be a good time to show up, Michael. Soon their reinforcements will be here!' Risty jumps out of the way as another thunder blast almost hits her, but gasps when she sees Claudette over her swinging her greatsword down._

"Grgh!" Risty musters her strength to block it with her mace and kick Claudette in the stomach to put some distance between the two.

* * *

Now with the new havoc ensuing on the Castle rooftop, laid Leina a little shaken from the explosion meant to kill her. She was now donning an armor with a silver breastplate, on her right arm and neck is a series of long brown straps wrapped around her that dangle about freely and for added protection, she was wearing a full-arm, armored gauntlet on her left arm with a buckler mounted on it.

Another distinctive change was her hair being shorter than it was. Before the explosion, she had vowed to walk in the steps of a warrior just like her mother and used her cut hair as a declaration of that. But as her spirits were lifted up they soon came crashing down as the demon who she fought appeared once more.

Emerging from the flames of the explosion was the appearance of a slime demon which took the form of a well-endowed woman with a pink hue on her skin, a lithe physique and blue eyes with clover-shaped pupils. She has long pink hair that reaches past her shoulders, featuring a pair of bunny ears. She is scantily-clad, wearing only a very small pink transparent jacket that only covers her shoulders featuring eye-like pauldrons and a collar bound by a heart-shaped emblem with wings and a pink dress. She wears an equally revealing blouse of the same color and density and wears a pair of pink shoes with a pair of eyes. The bangs of her hair that frame her face form into a pair of hands that cover her otherwise fully exposed chest.

"I told you, didn't I? No human has ever called me a monster and lived."

"Ngh… it's you…" Leina struggles to get back up while facing her attacker.

"Don't worry, Leina… it'll be over quickly before you know it…" The slime demon approached as the hands which covered her breasts grasped their sides and squeezed down firing blasts of acidic milk at Leina, non-stop.

"Teeheeheeheeheeheehee!" The slime demon laughed as the blasts caused a link of explosions which ravaged the castle along with her.

* * *

"Isn't that coming from Leina's room!?" Elina who was running for the wharf stopped to turn back but was stunned along with the soldiers following with her as something burning rained down on their bodies.

"W-What is this stuff…" Elina gritted her teeth as she couldn't move with the burning sensation the acidic milk had over her body.

* * *

"Gugh…This is bad…" Leina winced in pain as she was back up against the wall of another building atop of the roof. The acidic milk was making her body burn like crazy as she tried force herself to stand.

"I-I have to…" The first thing that came to mind was Leina's scared plan to escape.

"You won't be escaping~!"

"…!" Leina whips her head back as she catches the slime demon standing behind her with a sadistic smile on her face.

"You know, if you're already okay with dying, then at least put up a fight!" The demon laughed, she enjoyed the look of despair etching on Leina's face.

"I mean you didn't even stand a chance last time, but struggling will make this even more enjoyable. I could just remember the face you made! You were like "Oh, I'm so embarrassed!" Hahahahaha!" The slime demon giggled even more with pleasure at the sight of her prey being in a hopeless situation.

"…!" Leina trembled in fear at the demon's mentioning of her unavoidable death. She slowly thought of ways to escape this mess, but stopped herself when she remembered something very insightful.

 _-Then you have to resolve yourself and get ready to face anything getting in your way because if you keep running, you'll always end up where you started.-_

 _'_ _Michael…after what he said…and I'm still trying to run away…' Leina uses all the strength she can muster to try and stand,_

 _'_ _I have to still keep fighting or else I'm going to end up where I began!'_

Leina closely observed the demon, who was slowly approaching. Leina knew she didn't have the qualifying strength or talented skill with a sword, so she needed to do use something else to her advantage, and she needed to think of it quickly.

* * *

Back on the wharf, was a hiding Risty, who managed to give Claudette the old slip for only a while. The General was still convinced she was hiding in the wharf and made sure to end things once she found the bandit.

"Just my luck…guess I got to ditch the treasure and run. They're all going to be so disappointed, too…" Risty sighed in disappointment that she had to leave her great haul behind.

"If you don't want to give it up, you can give it to me." Jean who appears beside Risty floating in the air says as one of his arms were holding a large-human sized portal.

"J-Jean?"

"That's me." Jean stoically answered.

"How did you-?"

"I said it before. I had stuff to do. Now I'm done with that stuff." Jean pointed to the portal and said, "If you want you can take the stuff you have through here."

"That's awesome, you're the best!" Risty rushes to enter the portal.

"Where is Michael, isn't he with you?"

Risty stops cold in her tracks and says, "He didn't come… as usual…"

"Hm?" Jean raised an eyebrow.

Before he could ask any more, Claudette appeared over the rubble and shouted, "There you are, and who are you-!?"

"Ah…The thundercloud general, nice to make your acquaintance." Jean bowed as Risty entered through the portal.

"The thief! You're with her, too, then prepare to be apprehended as well!" Claudette charged her greatsword with a high voltage of electricity before firing it at Jean.

Breathing out sharply, Jean raised his hand and covered it with a dark bluish aura, **"Absorption."**

As soon as the electricity hit Jean's hand it instantly disappeared.

"W-What!?" Claudette gasped.

"Here, have it back." Jean's arm sparkled with mass amounts of electricity, **"Redirect."**

A bigger blast of lightning amped up with Jean's own magic was shot at Claudette, who barely managed to dodge, but got blown away from the sheer blast of the attack.

"A-Argh!" Claudette forces herself to stand as she sees Jean give her another bow.

"Excuse me, but I have to go now. I hope we never see each other again." Jean bowed and flew through the portal.

"Wait!" Claudette reached out and tried to enter the portal as well but the debris from the collapsing wharf came crashing down in front of her.

"Damn!" Claudette rushed out feeling disappointed that she couldn't stop the thief from making off with the stolen treasure. As soon as she got out she saw what she thought was Elina on the roof, but actually…

"No, that's Leina!"

Back up on the roof, Leina was confronting the demon as she was now backed up to a corner.

"You'll die if you fall, Leina, but don't worry you can come over to me and die by melting~!" The demon laughed as she readied to fire another blast of acidic milk from her breasts.

 _'…_ _Wait, the milk that she fired before deteriorated the footing here, so if we added more weight it would give out… but to get through this I also need to enough force to propel me away before I fall through the roof!' Leina kept thinking logically before her sight stopped on the demon's breasts._

 _'_ _I got it!'_

The demon took a couple of steps towards her.

 _'_ _Come on, just 5 more steps. Now 4…' Leina thought._

"You monster, I have places to go without you getting in the way!" Leina provoked.

 _'_ _Take the bait…' Leina gulped._

"Did you seriously call me monster again, now I really have to make sure to leave nothing left of you!" The demon grew more angered as she took a couple of more steps forward.

 _'_ _3…2…what?' Leina gasped as she saw the demon stop in her tracks._

"Is this…? So that's why you got me mad…" The demon smirked as she looked down at the horrible footing.

"W-Wha-! Of course not you, little devil, so come get me! Unless you're a coward!" Leina started to panic on the inside as soon as she was caught.

"That would have been clever, but you know I feel safer killing you right about here…" The demon mocked Leina as she took a couple of steps back, but stopped. Not because she wanted to, but because someone was right behind her.

"Are you sure?"

The demon whipped her head back as she saw the visage of a grinning Michael behind her.

"I think the spot Leina had for you was perfect."

"You!" The demon growled.

"Hi." Michael nonchalantly pushed the demon forward.

"Michael, what are you doing here?" Leina couldn't believe that someone she knew was here to help.

"I kind of thought that you needed help, but you kind of gotten things handled here." Michael chuckled then glared at the demon.

"But I guess you need help with the "Protean Assassin" Melona before you could take your first step so allow me to help you."

"Are you serious?" Melona gritted her teeth in frustration as she looked between Leina and Michael.

"Why of all people are you even here? I thought I had given you the slip when the Thundercloud General was chasing after your friend?" Melona was confused, she indeed sensed that Michael was heading towards that direction.

"Well, I could have done that, but I couldn't have just left someone to die by the hand of a demon like you. Especially a demon who's gotten quite the reputation that most people are actually afraid to even lift up a sword knowing you'll be there to kill them. Such fear going around is unforgiveable." Michael's voice sounded cold towards Melona.

"You fool that was just for participants of the Queens Blade!"

"The Queens Blade?" Leina wondered out loud.

"Queens Blade, huh? So your boss has something against? Good, at least I get the gist of things now." Michael could get everything he needed to know just from that sentence.

"You idiot! What are you even sayi-!"

"Then answer me this. Why are you still attacking, Leina then?"

Melona stopped as she and even Leina felt an immeasurable amount of pressure leak out of Michael's body.

"If you're only after Queens Blade participants, then why go after Leina, who hasn't even heard of that competition much less know if it existed?" Michael cracked his hands as he raises it with a face filled with rage.

"…" Melona staggered back in fear.

 _'_ _This pressure is this what happens when Michael gets mad? But why is Melona so scared of him?'_

"You see, if you were just some ordinary assassin going out to kill someone, then that's your own problem. I would have ignored it since it wasn't my business, but you're a demon, and I can't stand that your mercilessly killing people…"

Michael angrily points at Melona, "Plus the fact that your changing form to manipulate and kill people makes it even more heinous. Your powers let you hide from the law, the victim and the consequences! That's why I won't let you do what you want anymore. Much less allow someone like that to go on living…" Michael harshly says as he grabs the handle of his blade, **"Onyx Flash!"**

Pulling out his sword, Michael imbues its blade with a destructive aura and slowly approaches Melona, "Prepare yourself…"

"A-Are you kidding one of the 7 Devil Arms of the Underworld? Are you seriously trying to destroy everything just to kill me!?" Melona shuddered at the thought of such terrifying power being used on her.

"Here I go!" Michael roared.

"D-Damn you!" Melona prepares to jump away from the man and escape.

"You're not getting away!" Michael makes a huge leap forward and cocks back his blazing fist.

"I'll just dodge that then!" Melona starts incorporate herself into a puddle of slime by making her body more malleable.

"You fell for it!"

"What!?"

Faking Melona out with the attack, Michael stops the flow of aura and smacks Melona with the flat side of his sword.

"Now, Leina!" Michael shouted.

"Hyah!"

"Y-You! Let go!"

Before she could fall through the roof, Melona felt the pressure of Leina pushing down her breasts with hers. Placing on too much pressure that the acidic milk inside of Melona's breasts were being stored up until it was too much that her breasts inflated to the size of beach balls and beyond.

 _'_ _I just needed to make you scared to forget about Leina's plan. Now you fell right into her trap.' Michael grinned, 'Anyways who said anything about not helping someone take their first step.'_

"L-Let go! It hurts! It has to come out!"

 _'_ _Wait a minute was this really her plan?' Michael gasped, 'If that much is stored in it will make a huge-!'_

"Have to make it!"

Michael rushed out to Leina, but-!

 ***BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!***

"Leeeeeeina!" Elina cried out.

"Gugh!" Claudette clicked her tongue as she was blinded by the explosion.

The pent up pressure of the acidic milk combusted and created a huge explosion that alerted everyone who watched. Unknown to them the scenario they envisioned was completely avoided if not for the lone black figure which flew through the massive cloud of smoke.

"H-Huh?" Leina slowly opened her eyes to see that she was in the scaly arms of some individual and they were both high up in the air at that, too. Looking upwards, she saw the visage of a demon-looking young man with long horns and wings that looked to belong on a bat or rather a demon itself.

Spreading its black gargoyle-like wings out the armored individual flew through the night sky as an echoing chuckle resonated from within it.

"That was a close one, but I made it on time. You know, Leina that blast would have sent you flying to your death or much worse if you weren't careful, but… I guess this deserves a pass."

"Michael?" Leina felt the familiarity of the voice resounding through the armor.

"Don't freak out. This is natural for me, so just…" Michael then heard the soft breathing of Leina and assumed that she was sleeping.

"Relax…" Michael made sure to hold the girl more tightly unless she fell from his grasp.

"Now where do I go from here?" Michael looked around until he saw what looked to be Jean on the beach with Risty who seemed to be swinging something.

"So that's where they were. Now I can finally la-Boooogeh!" Michael saw nothing but whiteness around him as a mace clobbered his defenseless. Having momentarily lost consciousness, Michael reverted to his normal state and was free falling to the lake below him with Leina following in suit.

"There we go…" Jean caught the unconscious Leina while letting Michael fall into the lake.

 ***SPLASH!***

Jean felt that he should have warned Michael about that.

By the time he had escaped with Risty he had found the woman furious with being left alone to take on Claudette. There was also a small agreement that after Michael had finished sending the armor to Leina that he would return to help her. He didn't, so… he got his just desserts after all.

"Also, that idiot exhausted his strength by forcing himself into his devil arms' **[Forbidden Demonion]** state. He can barely hold onto it for a minute and if anything, Risty just ended things before he ran out of energy and fell by himself." Jean sighed.

"Pwaaaaaaaagh!" Michael breathes out as he emerges from the water and swims to shore.

"Aaaaaaargh! My head!" Michael grips his bleeding head in pain.

"That's for leaving me alone to fend against the Thundercloud General!" Risty scolded, "You're lucky Jean was there to bail me out when we had the chance or I'd have to put a debt on your head!"

"Risty, look at me!" Michael glared at Risty as his entire head was bleeding, "LOOK AT ME! I am BLEEDING from my FUCKING face! That was definitely uncalled for!"

"Stop acting like a bitch! What are you going through your period already?"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Don't you go there, not you of all people should go there right now!"

"What are you trying to say, huh!?"

"That you have your period going on every single god damn day!"

"W-Why you little-!"

"Yeah, I went there!"

The two were having a lover's spat as Jean levitated to the ground and sighed before looking over to Leina.

"I'd question why he brought you along but if it forced him into using that form then I guess I won't question it." Jean returned to the pair, soon to be trio once the Vance girl wakes up.

Subconsciously, Leina was smiling as the morning sky lightened the area. It signified the start of a new adventure for her. When she wakes up, she'll actually have something to will actually brighten her day. As she can finally take that, **first step.**

* * *

 **Next Chapter- Revelations at an Orphanage and another Devils Arm sighted in Hinomoto? The Cursed Red-Edged Demon Blade, Muramasa is revealed!**

* * *

 **Now another Devils Arm User will reveal itself after the veil over Michael and Risty's relationship is revealed. Thanks for watching and I hope to see you all again next time!**

 **Be sure to leave a review if you can!**

 **I'm Out, so Peace Out and have a nice day!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Revelations at an Orphanage and another Devils Arm sighted in Hinomoto? The Cursed Red-Edged Demon Blade, Muramasa is revealed!**

* * *

Picking up a block of wood and a brick, Michael examined the materials to check if they're suitable for the task.

"Hmm…yup, I think this will be enough!" Michael smiled.

"Really, Big Bro!?" A ragged young girl tugged at Michael's pants, "You can fix all of the holes in the building?"

A group of poorly clothed children surrounded Michael, they looked rather thin, but the smiles that they wore gave a clear indicator that, they weren't going to get discouraged because of that.

"Of course, but I'm not so handy as to do all of this myself!"

Michael thrusts his fist in the air shouted, "So can I count on you all to help me?"

"Yeah!"

Hearing the cheers from the younglings brought a smile to Michael's face.

It was in the middle of the day as Michael and his friends have taken a small break at a Chapel that's been in poor condition. This chapel also served as an orphanage, housing multiple children, who don't have families or homes to go to.

After their eventful escape to the Vance Castle, Michael along with his companions and their new companion Risty made haste to escape the castle's perimeters. Lingering any longer would have caught the eye of the Vance soldiers.

Sadly, the only way they were able to escape fast enough was by leaving half of the dead weight holding them back, the stolen treasure.

Risty was rather reluctant at first, but had to agree when a few Vance soldiers doing recon almost caught up to them.

While traversing their way to the checkpoint out of the Vance territory, Leina had requested that she wanted to go over the Pass and was willing to pay for Risty's cooperation. Risty still didn't find why the noble girl wanted to leave, but agreed anyways for the pay. Money is still Money to her in the end.

However, after they passed a single town they came across an orphanage that Jean literally dragged Michael too. Much to his charging, Michael wanted to get through the Vance's territory as soon as he could, but a mace to the forehead cut his intentions short.

Now with no other choice but to stay, Michael decided to help out the orphanage by fixing it's damaged walls with the supplies that he bought in town.

"There. That's one hole out of the many others that need to get fixed." Michael climbed down a ladder to move to the next one.

"Big Bro, Michael!"

A little girl holding a bag of tools ran to him.

"I brought you more tools."

"Thank you." Michael patted the girl's head, much to her delight.

Popping up from through the chapel doors was a brown haired boy with a bandage on his face. He was followed by a few other boys his age as they approached the young man.

"Hey, Big Bro, you promised us that you would teach us how to use a sword when you came back to visit."

"Right, I'll make sure to do that after filling all the holes on the chapel first, okay?"

"Alright! Then let's help out to quicken the progress!"

"Yeah!"

The group of boys zipped around and anxiously lent Michael a hand with holding the ladder and giving him the tools he needed.

Noticing someone missing, Michael groaned, "Wait a minute. Where is Jean?"

"Oh, Big Bro Jean is over there." The little girl pointed to a wooden table, where a sleeping Jean snored lightly as a butterfly fluttered on his nose.

"That lazy no good son of a-!" Michael picked up a brick and smirked,

"Slacking on the job is gonna cost you!"

Michael chucked the brick at Jean.

"Redirect."

"Ghugh!"

The brick stopped as it was about to hit Jean, but shot itself back and hit Michael's forehead.

 _'_ _I forgot how aware he can be while he's asleep.' Michael rubbed the bruise on his head._

Figuring out a certain someone on the sidelines, Michael looks to see Leina watching the children hauling the supplies and tools like a bystander.

"Hey, Leina!" He shouted.

"Y-Yes?" The girl staggered back in surprise.

"You have to help too, you may be a guest, but the more hands we have helping out, the better!"

"O-Okay."

Leina was still getting used to this new lifestyle of working, so her response was delayed until Michael handed her a hammer.

"See? This is a hammer…" Michael grinned, talking slowly.

"You use it to pound these nails in." Michael made a hammering gesture.

"I know what a hammer does…" Leina pouted, feeling insulted by the gesture.

"Then help me put up this board then." Michael laughed and pounded in a nail.

"Hmph!" Leina huffs and follows suit pounding away at a nail. After that mocking manner Michael had shown her she had to prove that she can handle the same workload that everyone else is doing.

 ***BAM!***

"Eeek!" Leina screamed.

"What's wrong?" Michael rushed over to see Leina on the ground.

"Guuuh…"

She had been pounding the nail, so hard that she forgot to realize her own finger was in the way.

"Hehe…I see you pounded a different kind of nail, huh?"

"…" Leina shot Michael a dirty look.

"Okay, relax I was only joking. Now let me take a look at it."

Coyly laughing, Michael rubs his head and leads Leina to the steps of the chapel.

He made sure to blow cool air onto the throbbing finger to lighten hot pain. Leina somewhat blushed at the cold sensation of Michael breath on her thumb.

"Sorry, we don't really have ice around here so this will have to do." Michael said.

"It's okay." Leina was still flustered and tried to hide it when Michael was rolling a bandage around her thumb.

"There. It wasn't a hard hit, so the swelling will go down soon." Michael chuckled.

"Thank you."

"No problem. Just stay there and relax."

Michael stood up stretched his arms, he felt like a break was needed.

"Hey, everyone! Let's stop for now and have a little break!"

Michael called out to the children, who gladly dropped their supplies and tools. Eventually, the brown-haired boy and his friends ran up to the man.

"Big Bro, does that mean-?"

"Yes, get out your wooden swords."

Michael sheepishly smiled as the boys cheered and rushed into the chapel.

"You're teaching them how to use a sword?"

Leina wondered, she never expected Michael to be a teacher.

"Yeah, they have to learn how to defend themselves in case something dangerous comes along."

"But do you really know how to teach them how to use proper swordplay?"

"Well…I'm only as good as I am because of my teacher, so let me have a crack at you, Leina." Michael rubbed his chin.

"Me?" Leina points to herself.

"Yeah, you. In a fight, you tend to change the hand you use your sword with, and that becomes a problem since your already in a fight trying to adapt to your opponent's style of fighting."

"What?"

Leina was caught off guard by Michael's analysis.

"After seeing you use that hammer, I can tell your right handed, so always rely on your most dominant hand in every battle you come across. Your blade may be a long sword, but it isn't heavy, so try and train with a one-handed style. Now onto your hips."

"M-My hips?" Leina blinked as she looked at them in confusion.

"Yes, your hips. You tend to tighten them when you're in battle, but that limits your mobility because unlike guys, you females have more developed hips to carry children. I suggest that you widen your stance to get better movement."

"Wow…"

"That good enough for ya?"

Leina was speechless as Michael turned to the boys, who rushed out of the chapel.

"We're all ready, Big Bro!"

"Good! Now line up, so I can see your stances!"

"Yes, sir!"

The boys eagerly ran out to the field in front of the chapel as Leina watched. She saw Michael supervise the boys with a patient eye and a truthful input whenever one of the boys made a mistake they were too stubborn to admit.

Smiling to herself, Leina found it quite amusing to see the children getting pumped up for Michael's training.

"So that idiot is teaching them more swordplay, eh?"

"Kya!"

Leina screamed once Jean popped up from behind her as he lazily looked at all of the commotion that woke him up from his nap.

"Hey, you should really control yourself… your scream scared the hell out of me." Jean lazily wiped his eyes.

 _'_ _He's the one that's scared?' Leina thought as she noticed Jean's composed and tired attitude._

"So how does it feel?" Jean asked.

"Huh?" Leina tilted her head.

"How does it feel to being a free woman now?"

"Well, er…" Leina wore a forced smile.

Leina wasn't comfortable being around Jean due to his past cold comments and attitude towards her but she knew not answering would just make everything weird.

"I don't quite know what to feel at this point."

She gave him the best answer she could come up with.

"I guess that's legit. It was only a couple of days ago when you were captured and sent back home. I guess you won't really know how to be free until you leave this territory."

"Yeah…"

Was all that Leina could reply as she still wanted to avoid a conversation with the brown-haired man.

"I'm sorry."

"Huh?"

Leina looked to see that Jean was sitting next to her with his head bowed and his legs crossed.

"I spoke rudely without understanding the weight of my words and for that I apologize."

"N-No, its okay. You don't have to apologize, or anything its fine!" Leina shook her head and hands.

Jean lifted his head and wore the same neutral face like always.

"Then, I guess I'll take your denial of my apology as a way of you being modest…problem solved*YAWN!*"

Jean tiredly yawns and wipes his eyes.

 _'_ _He's kind of a nice person once you get to know him, and kind of funny, too.' Leina laughs to herself._

"So Jean why aren't you teaching those kids that magic you did before?"

Leina asked as Jean looked at her with no expression. But his one eye twitched, which made Leina blink in confusion.

"I tried." Jean looked up.

"You mean you did before?"

Jean looked at Leina and nodded.

"But I stopped."

"Why?"

Jean looked up again.

Leina followed his sign of vision and looked at the huge gaping hole on the chapel roof.

"That's why."

"You mean that happened?"

"They're still young to comprehend the amount of power needed to augment their mana, so all of them combined destroyed the roof with an explosion. The Sister, who watches this place, told me to never do something this foolish again."

"That would explain it. So do you miss teaching them?"

Jean looked at the huge hole on the chapel roof then back to Leina.

"…I'm going to nap." Jean flew away without a second's thought about Leina's question.

 _'_ _Perhaps I hit a nerve with him.' Leina nervously chuckled._

She then thought back to a previous thought, "Hey, Jean if you don't mind me asking, but do you know where Risty?"

Jean stops to turn around with a snot bubble expanding and compressing with each breath he took.

"Huzzawhat?" Jean mumbled.

 _'_ _He was sleeping while he was levitating?' Leina casted that thought aside and asked once more._

"I haven't seen Risty out here for a long time do you know where she is?"

Wiping his eyes, Jean yawns.

"That's right, you don't know yet."

"Know what?"

"Risty is busy feeding her child."

Leina froze and blinked.

"What?"

"Risty has a one year old child."

"S-She does with who?" Leina shot out of her seat.

Jean yawns, but points out to the field.

"Are you serious? Then-!"

"Michael is the Paternal Father." Jean finished.

"Now can I go take a nap?"

Michael noticed the two talking to each other and waved to them like a moron, completely oblivious to what they were talking about.

* * *

As everyone was outside working hard, there were a pair who decided to stay within the chapel's main building.

Risty was sitting on own of the church pews as she carried a clothed bundle close to her breasts as she looked down at it with what could only be known as maternal love.

"Geez…I might need to come around more often, if you're this hungry for my milk." Risty nurtured the small child in her arms.

"I'm sure that Soma would probably love having the two of you visit more often."

Sitting right beside Risty was the Sister and caretaker of the orphans outside. The Sister felt that the children were protected under Michael's watchful eye and felt that he has enough good judgement to care for them without her supervision.

"I would understand me, but "him"? Come on…" The thought of Michael and son interacting filled her with disdain.

"The guy was scared to come to this place with me like it was the plague. "

"Really?"

"Yeah, Jean and I literally had to drag him here. That bastard can act so shameful at times. I can't believe that he would want to avoid all of these good children."

"I don't think he's that bad. He hasn't once ignored the children when he returned." The Sister smiled, remembering the flock of orphans piling on top of Michael to get his attention. His last visit was ages ago when Jean's teachings caused a big hole in the roof. She couldn't believe how he great he was with the children because of his rugged disposition.

"He has a wonderful way with kids, don't you think?"

"Of course, he has a way with kids it's because he has the maturity of one…wait, that's kind of giving him credit, no, he needs to be an adult to have maturity in the first place." Risty tensed her arms and felt the uncomfortable squirms of her child.

"Oh…sorry, Soma. I didn't mean to startle you like that…"

The Sister found the scene heartwarming.

She had met Risty long ago, and could see through her rough exterior, she was a kind hearted woman, but it was always hidden under a tough mask as a Bandit. She was powerful, cold, and somewhat cruel towards her enemies, but ever since the birth of her son, Soma, the woman has gotten more open with her feelings.

"Do you think we can talk about something else? This topic about "him" is killing my happy mood." Risty cradled the baby in her arms as she began feeding Soma with her other breast.

"Sure, I wouldn't mind it." The Sister bright smile turned sort of strict as she looked Risty in the eye, "So, let's talk about how you recklessly took treasure from the Count, and how you were this close to being captured."

"Geez…your killing me! Why can't you just talk about god and all of that crap instead of busting my chops?" Risty tiredly groaned.

"Risty…"

"Look, I promised to get you all the money I could get, so everyone could have a well sheltered home and a filling meal for the next 3 months. I saw nothing wrong with stealing from them, they're the biggest thieves of all!"

"Risty…we appreciate your concern, but we would be trouble if the aid you lent us comes at the cost of your own life."

"I get that your worried about me and I appreciate it, but you should have seen all of the treasure that they had… if we had that much then all of the children here would have a sturdy roof to sleep under with better meals, that will give them something good to eat than just filling their stomachs to survive."

Risty stopped breastfeeding Soma and lulls him to sleep by rocking her arms back and forth.

"If only we could have taken the rest of that treasure, then this place would have been set for a long time and maybe Soma could have a solid place to call his home." Risty moved a small lock of red hair away from her son's face to see the baby peacefully snore.

Keeping silent, the Sister knew better than to scold Risty any further. She knew Risty only did the theft for their sake, and that enough makes her begrudgingly accepts her intentions despite the means she does to accomplish them.

Everything in the chapel was completely peaceful until the doors slams open to reveal a silhouette standing imposingly. Based on the shape, Risty could guess that it was Leina and if she could make out her expression it wasn't very a happy one.

From the side of the door frame, Jean opened one eye and said, "This can't be good."

Back out on the fields, Michael was still instructing the young boys on how to use a sword.

"Okay, so first, all you have to do is…"

Then from out of nowhere a huge cry was heard from inside the chapel.

"What the-?" Michael wanted to go and check, but knew Risty wouldn't let him help.

"Michael…" Jean lazily called out.

 _'_ _If you're trying to call me, then at least put effort into it…' Michael sweatdropped._

"What?" Michael responded.

"That Vance girl and Risty are fighting." Jean pointed through the open doors.

"Wait, are you serious!? Hey, you guys keep going, I'll be right back. Hopefully…" Michael tells the boys to continue their practice as he rushes to the doors of the chapel. Inside of the chapel was Risty pushing Leina back against the wall by the collar with the Sister holding a crying Soma in her arms.

"Risty, stop!" The Sister scolded.

"Oh crap…" Michael turned to Jean, "Why didn't you try to stop this?"

"She's your Ex-lover, you deal with her, and besides I don't feel like getting my spine ripped out." Jean sighed.

"Geez…I don't feel like it either, but I'm still going to have to do it, aren't I?" Michael groaned.

Ignoring the surrounding chit-chat, Risty pinned Leina against the wall after the Vance girl stormed in and stuck her nose into the personal affairs of others.

"I dare you to say that again."

Leina tried her best to escape Risty's grip, but found the woman much stronger than her, so she decided to let out what she wanted to say.

"You heard me. Tell me why those children look like they haven't had a decent meal in months? Why is this entire orphanage lacking so much for these children?"

"I don't think I like the way you're pushing all of this on me. This place's state is hardly my fault at all!"

"What happened to the Royal Charity?"

"The what?"

"Don't play dumb, everyone knows that Count Vance gives money to the unfortunate…"

Leina read the look of everyone's expressions and turned to see both Michael and Jean holding their heads down while facepalming.

"Right?" Leina looked surprised that no one was backing up her claim.

"Oh yeah, right…the charity. The one that never came to us because maybe he did give money away to the other pig headed nobles, who offered to take care of the "noble" cause." Risty mocked Leina's stance in the arguent, "Oh, but have you ever considered that maybe those same bastards kept the charity funds to themselves and ignored the situation that's going on out here?"

"N-No, but I-!"

"Exactly, you never considered it because you were living in luxury under your selfish father as daddy's little princess." Risty said.

"That's not true, living in that place was…" Leina looked sad, but tried to put up a front.

"Pfft! Then explain to me why the hell someone like Count Vance would even care enough to consider the people of his own."

"Because it's his duty, he's honor bound to protect his people."

"Hmph!"

Both women glared at each other with their clashing ideals.

"Okay, lets calm down, you two. Can't you put this argument off after we leave tomorrow?"

Michael pointed at the sad children, who heard the noise of a potential fight.

"…Fine." Risty released Leina, who slid down the wall to regain her breath, but before she left, she said,

"Listen, Leina. You may think you know everything going on out here, but that's just ignorance. These children aren't the only victims of your father's so called precious "honor bound" duty to protect his people. Why don't you figure things out for yourself, and then talk righteously all you want because I could honestly care less."

"I…"

Leina looks down with confliction in her expression, as Risty walks to take the crying Soma from the Sister.

She turns back to spare the girl one more glance,

"I guess when compared to the other nobles, Count Vance isn't the worst, but in the end, they all act pretty much the same. Even those who barely look at their deeds tend to gain some of their pompous ignorance." Risty sighed, "More or less. To the strongest go the spoils. That's the law of the land. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll have to soothe my crying child back to sleep."

Before Risty could walk off, Michael looked hesitant and approached Soma with open arms.

"Hey, Risty. Maybe I can help just a lit-." Michael smiled.

"Don't you dare get anywhere near "my" child!" Risty hissed.

"…R-Right…sorry."

Michael sighed in defeat once Risty walked off with Soma.

"Whipped much…?" Jean whistled.

"Shut up, Jean." Michael groaned.

Walking up to the pair, the Sister bowed her head,

"Forgive me, Michael, but I couldn't do anything to stop this, and help you mend your relationship with Risty."

"Mend my relationship? No, Sister don't apologize. Things would be out of control for me, too, if I were here as long as you. Hell, I'd bet Risty would have given me a black eye, hehehe…" Michael bitterly laughed.

"But Michael if you would just explain to her about your past dona-!" Sister tried to express her worry, but Michael raising his hand in denial dashed her concerns.

"Please keep that a secret, too. I'd rather she keeps taking her anger out on me this way. It's easier for her this way without feeling mixed up about things. Besides, I don't want to be forgiven, just call it a way of me taking responsibility."

Michael gave a bright smile with a hint of sadness, from his furrowed eyebrows.

"If that's what you wish." Sister bowed her head to him in respect.

"Well, it's almost time for dinner, so I'll go let everyone know to get ready. You come too, Jean! Jean?"

Michael looked to his side to find his companion laying on a pew snoring.

"One of these days, Jean, you're going to regret sleeping in the middle of the day." Michael growled.

Turning to the still saddened Leina, Michael stuck out his hand and helped her up.

"Come on, you have to help, too."

"R-Right…"

 _'_ _Damn…Risty, you didn't have to lay it that thick on the girl.' Michael groaned and reminded himself to apologize for Risty's actions, later._

Calling in the children to prepare for dinner, Michael and everyone enjoyed a real meal with the orphans and had a lively dinner. The children hounded Michael and Jean for stories about their adventures. While Risty tried to feed a hungry Soma with a bottle as the Sister helps.

Everyone was in a happy mood save for Leina who was in a sullen mood, still thinking about what she did wrong and what Risty meant about only about what she's always been told by her own father.

Soon enough, dinner passes and everyone had turned in for the night. The moon's luminescent light had shined down upon the chapel, and through the windows.

Leina was dozing in and out of sleep. The discussion she had with Risty was still bothering her.

 _'_ _Is what Risty said true? Is father really…?'_

Footsteps pattering to the door interrupted her train of thought, as she sat up to look at the familiar back of Michael sneaking out of the chapel as he held in his arms a clothed bundle.

"I better do this fast before I get caught…" Michael closes the door behind him.

"Michael?" Doing her best not to wake the others, Leina quietly followed.

Closing the door was even a trial itself because of its creaking rusty doors. Luckily, no one was bothered by it so she steadily closed the door behind her.

Sighing in relief, she looked out to the fields, in front of the chapel, to see Michael gazing at the star filled night sky.

Approaching him carefully, Leina tries to figure out the bundle of clothes in his arms.

"You see that, Soma? Yeah, those are stars…" Michael gently spoke.

"You see, we can't really count all of them because there are one…two…three…fo-. Let's just say there are about an infinite number of stars, okay?"

"Michael?"

Leina's call shocked Michael as he screamed out in a panic.

"Risty, please not the face! I was just coming out for the fresh air!"

"Relax, it's not Risty. its me." Leina smiled.

"I don't think I can relax, yet. You might tell Risty that I was here." Michael weirdly turned the front of his body away from Leina's sight as he looked back at her.

"Why would she care about that?"

Looking around suspiciously, Michael coughed,

"No reason."

"Okay, but who were you talking to?" Leina scratched her cheek.

"No one." Michael said.

"But you just said their name and it was Soma." Leina said.

"That was because… Soma is my imaginary friend." Michael sweatdropped.

"You have an imaginary friend?"

"Y-Yes…"

"Then, why did you say it was no one?"

"Well, uh… you see I…"

"Ba!"

A mumble which could only belong to a baby was heard.

"Are you holding a baby?"

"No!"

"Bababoo!"

"Hey, wait Soma, no!"

"Gu…"

A baby with dark skin, red spiky hair with black highlight and silver eyes climbed up onto Michael's shoulders. The infant looked towards Leina before it started playing with Michael's hair.

"So it was a baby, and isn't he you're son?" Leina decided to sit by Michael.

"Wait, how did you know that?"

"Jean told me."

"Figures." Michael sighed.

"So why are you out here with Soma?"

Michael sat the young child on his lap and sighed,

"This is the only time of the day when Risty isn't on my neck to stay away from him. She's very set on me not interacting with him on a daily basis."

"So she allows you to watch him during the night?"

"Let me remind you in much easier terms, she's very dead set on me not seeing most of Soma, in general. Right now she doesn't even know that I've taken him out of his crib. So I need you to promise me to keep this a secret from her." Michael wagged his finger.

"Sure, I promise."

"I mean a real promise. You are to never give away subtle hints of this happening, and you can't slip up either because even if it's an accident, I'll die, so promise me."

"Michael, aren't you be-"

"Promise me!"

"Okay, I will!"

"Good…" Michael bounced Soma in his arms and continued to play with the happy baby.

Watching the young man play with his infant child brought a smile to Leina's face, but the unwanted memories of her own father started flooding in which made Leina remember the fight she got into with Risty.

"Hey, Leina. I want to apologize." Michael said.

"Apologize?"

"For what Risty said earlier."

"Oh…" Leina looked down.

"Look, she's been through some rough times because of some Nobles, and when you brought up that argument, well, you can already tell that they aren't her favorite people in the world. She just gets so angry whenever anyone so much as defends them. It's understandable that she would get angry about it, but she shouldn't have taken that anger out on you because you're the daughter of one."

"Michael, can I ask you…why Risty does hate nobles?"

Rubbing the cooing Soma's head, Michael looked hesitant, but sighed,

"You know it might be personal to say it out loud to you, but doing this could actually help her in the long run."

 _'_ _He looks very worried…is it because he worries over Risty? Well, it would make sense since they had a child together, but Risty treats him like a nuisance. I-I don't get any of this at all.' Leina thought._

"If I tell you then you have to promise to be more understanding of her…views against the nobles, okay?"

"I-I'll try."

Michael stared at Leina, knowingly.

"What?" Leina asked.

"Trying doesn't sound reliable, I need you to be fully understanding with effort." Michael said, seriously.

"But she's the one, who doesn't understa-!"

"Leina, I'm not confident with half-assed answers. I need your full cooperation, or else you can just sit outside with me until I force you to change Soma's diaper." Michael could hear the baby boy laugh in his arms,

"Which could be any minute now."

Giving up with a sigh, Leina decided to listen.

"Fine. I promise to listen to the complete story."

"And…?"

"And I promise to understand Risty's situation…" Leina groaned.

"Good. Now her past…hmm, first, have you ever heard of territorial battles?" Michael scratched Soma's cheek.

"You mean fights over land between two high ranked leaders and their armies?"

"That's it. You see Risty grew up in a normal home, in a normal family."

"Just like you?"

Michael takes a moment to digest that for a minute.

"Yeah…sure, let's go with that."

 _'_ _That doesn't sound very convincing.' Leina sweatdropped._

"Risty technically had a normal life, until a selfish noble sought out the territory that another noble had by trying negotiate for it. However, that ended terribly because the other noble was satisfied with his territory for its abundant resources. So completely infuriated the selfish noble did one thing to screw over the other out of spite."

Leina could have guessed what happened next.

"You mean he went to war with him?"

"No, worse. He played a childish move by destroying the territory's most resourceful town. You know the old saying "If I can't have it, then no one can"? It fits pretty well, huh?"

"That's terrible, but if something that terrible happened, then why haven't the other nobles reacted to this!?"

Michael narrowed his eyes.

"Because no one knew, who it was that ordered the attack on that town. No witnesses could explain the attackers, and without any evidence, no one could thoroughly punish who it was who did it. Or should I say there were no witnesses left to explain."

Covering her mouth, Leina gasped.

"T-The townsfolk were killed?"

"From adults, to the elderly and of course the children. Well, save for one child, who survived by hiding in the nearby woods."

"That's terrible!"

Michael groaned.

"And you could already guess, who that remaining child was, right? The only survivor of that massacre was Risty."

"!"

"Her home was in ruins, her family gone, and she had no one to turn to. She basically had to live on her own to survive."

"I-I see…" Leina couldn't help, but curse herself for taking Risty as just a common thief for just the thrills. Her own troubles seemed to pale in comparison to Risty's past suffering.

"So, what? Did that noble get away with it?"

"Nope, he's not a threat anymore." Michael rubbed his chin.

"What do you mean?" Leina leaned in with an eyebrow raised.

"That is another tale for another day." Michael flicked Leina's forehead.

"Ow!" Leina flinched back and rubbed her forehead.

"So that's Risty's story." Michael smiled, "Please make things up with her, and understand why she's the way she is."

"After hearing that I have no choice but to. Thanks for telling me that, Michael."

"No problem, as long as Risty has someone to truthfully talk to and smile with, that's all I can ask for." Michael chuckled.

Leina noticed that sincere tone of worry coming from Michael's voice which brought up another question.

"Excuse me, Michael?"

"What now? You wanna know about my awesome tales about travelling the world!?" Michael excitedly laughed.

"No."

"Oi, you're not supposed to ignore a man's offer to tell his adventures. You already asked me about Risty's heavy past, and now you're not even interested about my own stories. Your acting like some spoilt kid, who got a deal of getting a bonus game with the one they ordered. What? Are you just going to leave me here alone after getting what you wanted? Are you just going to toss aside this untouched game because your already satisfied with the one you got?" Michael ranted

"Yes, I'm quite fine. I don't want to waste my remaining time for bed by listening to your stories." Leina nodded.

"…You didn't have to answer that…" Michael sniffled.

"But do you mind me asking you something else?" Leina asked.

Dropping his head in depression, he said, "S-Sure, ask away."

"Were you and Risty lovers? And if, so why is she treating you like dirt?"

Looking serious for a moment, Michael sighed, "It's complicated."

"How? Are you two having a little spat because those tend to recover fast?"

"It's not like that." Michael groaned.

"But you have a son."

Soma mumbled incoherent jabber while Michael patted his back.

"Yeah, that's true, but things are more complicated than that." Michael said.

"How exactly is it complicated? It seems to me that you two are just a couple, who decided to temporarily separate while trying to raise their son together." Leina analyzed her thoughts.

"I wouldn't call a year and 4 months temporary." Michael coughed.

"It's been going on for that long?" Leina widened her eyes.

Sighing, Michael decided to let the cat out of this bag, "Look, its true. Risty and I were lovers before we separated."

"Separated?"

"Yeah, we just don't see eye to eye anymore. Well, she doesn't bother to look me in the eye anymore, but I made things end up like this, so who can blame her." Michael sadly glanced to the side.

"What do you mean?" Leina asked.

"It's complicated, but you're probably sick of hearing me say that, so I'll just get to the point. As a man, I've failed to keep my woman happy, I did a terrible thing that made me no better than trash."

Michael looked up at the stars while looking forlorn.

"I don't get it…did you break things off between the both of you?"

"Worse." Michael scratched his head,

"It was right after Soma was born. After a few days of us taking care of Soma, Risty became rather content with that temporary family life, and suggested we'd make a permanent home. Together."

"Really?" Leina gasped.

"Hehehe, yeah, I even remember her fumbling around to propose to me, a guy. I mean, I felt that she took a couple of my man points away at the time, but it really got to me when she confessed her desire to stay bound to me for life, y'know?" Michael slightly blushed.

"Aw, that's sweet, but what exactly did you do about it?" Leina asked.

"Isn't obvious? I rejected the proposal." Michael said.

"YOU DID WHA-!"

"SHHHHHH!" Michael covered Leina's mouth and shushed her.

"You're going to get us caught!" Michael quietly hissed.

"You rejected Risty's proposal? why?"

"That's a secret, but all I can say is after that Risty and I got into an argument. That ended up leading to Soma crying, and me being chased out while she threw tomatoes at me."

Michael could still remember that day, but the most painful thing which struck him wasn't the tomatoes or that stray random object Risty head-shotted him with, but the tears and muffled up cries that she made when she forced him out. On that day, he could clearly say that his status as a man was revoked.

"That must have been terrible." Leina felt sorry for Risty, mostly than Michael.

"Yeah, it was, but I'm the terrible bastard who did it."

Leina looked to her side to see Michael using his finger to play with Soma, the baby was grabbing onto it with his much smaller hands.

"After I denied the request and stayed silent through her desperate questions, I made a suggestion to send Soma to the Iron Mountains to be raised by my Mother and the people, who've taken care of me there. But Risty wouldn't listen, all she did was scream at me to "get out" and "not to touch _her_ child" excluding me from ever interacting with Soma."

Leina was still curious about how things went from there.

"What happened after you two separated?"

"Well, Risty brought Soma here to be watched over by the Sister while I traveled with Jean on my "journey". The way I learned of this place was when the Sister figured out my identity and sent me some letters about Soma's wellbeing. So, I tend to visit here when Risty isn't around, so things won't get hectic." Michael explained.

"You sound like your content with just the little contact you can have with Soma."

"Well, yeah, if you haven't noticed I'm kind of a terrible person." Michael won't even deny it.

"I guess, but…"

"No, I am…" Michael said with content in his tone.

"I'm the worst kind of person, denying the love of a girl and making her cry while leaving our child alone just like that can't be glossed over so easily. There's no way I can forgive myself, I don't deserve forgiveness and I don't want it either. Just considering it will make me less of a human than I already am." Michael clenched his fist and gritted his teeth.

 _'_ _He's serious, dead serious. I've never seen anyone be so hard on himself.' Leina thoughts then wondered to her older sister, 'Well, I mean save for Claudette.'_

"The only thing I can do is help without showing my face around her. Such as sending any extra money I come across to the chapel." Michael revealed.

"I managed to hear that from the Sister earlier. Do you really do that?"

"Yeah."

"Does Risty know?"

"No, and it's staying like that."

"But why? Wouldn't things be easier for you if you told-?"

"I don't need things to be easy, it's my fault that things are like this, so I intend to take all of the consequences for my actions." Michael said sternly.

"O-Okay…"

"Leina, look it may seem wrong hearing this from me, but could you please get along with Risty, so she can at least be happy?"

"You want me to do it?"

"Well, she won't smile with me around, so you're the only one I can count on to do that." Michael said.

"What about, Jean?" Leina questioned.

"Trust me your more capable than Jean is. His blunt and unreliable behavior with Risty's hot-headed behavior do not go well together."

"Oh, hehehehe…" Leina sweatdropped and smiled,

"Well when you put it like that, then I'll do just that and give it a try."

"Thanks, that's a real load off my shoulders…"

Suddenly, Michael smelled something rancid and looked at Soma who was laughing at his father.

"And another load to add to replace it." Michael groaned and sat up, "You better get to bed, I'll handle this…"

"Right." Leina slowly stands up and walks away, but stops to look back at Michael who was dealing with the laughing Soma, who continued to dirty his diaper.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Michael lazily looked at Soma, who continued to laugh.

"Excuse me, Michael?"

"Hm?" Michael turns back to look at Leina.

"You've been worried for Risty and Soma, and I don't think that makes you that bad of a person. I just wanna know if…you still hold feelings for Risty is all." Leina sympathetically smiled.

Michael takes a quick moment of silence before sighing with a tired smile,

"Just because I rejected her proposal doesn't mean I don't care about her."

Leina gasped, but smiles afterwards.

"Good…see, you're really not that bad of a person after all. Good night." Leina returned to the chapel to get her rest as Michael shakes his head.

"It's easier to say that when you're not the one in deep shit." Michael couldn't help but smile, "But thanks for saying that I really appreciate it, Leina."

"Hahahahahaha!" Soma laughed louder as he continued to dirty his diaper.

"I've heard of babies crying when they poo themselves. But right now, you're making me wonder if your just enjoying my suffering." Michael pinched his nose.

"Hahaha!"

"Enjoying my suffering it is…" Michael smiled and proceeded to take care of the diaper right away before slipping the child back into Risty's tired arms.

The next morning, Michael and his group were about ready to leave the chapel after they packed. Risty made sure to give a loving farewell to Soma, she couldn't tell why but whenever Michael entered the room, Soma would start laughing.

Michael started to consider that his child would soon grow to be a sadist after last night because while he was changing the little tyke, he sprayed his pee all over his face.

Leaving, everyone said their goodbyes to the orphans.

"Big bro, next time when you come to visit can you bring me back a picture book?"

"No, he should get us something cooler like the horn of dragon, or the fang of a Lion!"

"Big bro, next time you come could you take me with you to explore the world and train to be a swordsman just like you?"

The children were crowding around Michael as he was struggling to leave.

"Okay, I'll do my best to do that you guys. But I really have to get going so take care of yourselves!"

"We will!" The children nodded.

"I'll make sure to be back too, with some money to get them better sleeping arrangements." Risty said to the Sister.

"Just make sure it's not stolen."

"No promises." Risty said.

"Risty…"

"L-Look, I was just kidding, you know!" Risty grinned.

"…" Reading his book in peace, Jean patiently waited for everyone to be done with their goodbyes.

"M-Mr. Jean?"

"…?" Jean looks down to see a young girl slowly tug at his sleeve.

"I-I hope you can come back, too." The little girl bowed.

"Thank you." Jean nodded.

"U-Um…I was wondering. Could you teach me some magic when you come back?" The little girl timidly said.

"Why, wait?" Jean pulled out a huge book from a magic circle and was about to hand it to the little girl.

"Ahem!"

Jean looks up to see the Sister with her arms crossed, glaring.

"I'll teach you when I come back." Jean whispered and trotted off before he could get yelled at.

"O-Okay!" The little girl smiled and waved goodbye at the strange man.

"Bye, everyone!"

Saying their final goodbyes everyone soon traversed the path for the Mountain Checkpoint. Along the way, Leina kept on casting awkward glances at Risty, who did the same.

Michael crossed his fingers while Jean continued to levitate and read his book.

Soon enough the silence that filled the area was broken.

"Look, Risty I-."

"Don't say anything. I was the one, who was out of line back there. So I apologize."

"No, it's my fault, too. I just kept spouting stuff that I knew instead of realizing that everything I did know wasn't enough or fabricated by my sources. I'm sorry that I got so caught up about that."

"Look, let's just say we're both sorry. I'm not one to go for cheesy crap like this, okay?" Risty scratched her head and grinned.

"Okay." Leina smiled as she and Risty walked ahead.

"Yes!" Michael shouted, catching everyone's attention, "See? I knew you two could get along!"

"Just what are you talking about?" Risty asked.

"You know…this. Your friends now, right?"

Risty and Leina looked to each other, then back at Michael.

 _'_ _Why are they looking at me like that?' Michael sweatdropped._

"Sort of…but why does that matter to you?"

"Why, well becau-!"

Raising her arm up to block Michael, Leina said,

"I'm sorry, Michael, but I think you should just leave us alone right now."

"L-Leina, but I was just-!" Michael stuttered.

"Yeah, what she said you idiot, just stay at the back." Risty smirked as she threw her arm around Leina's shoulder.

"W-What is this? What's happening right now I feel like a chump, who just go excluded from a special friendship here."

"Now if you'll excuse us, I wanted to talk with Risty about this Queens blade." Leina ignored Michael's comment and strut off with Risty following in tow.

"Heh, you know, she's starting to grow on me. Yeah, stay away from us." Risty and Leina walked ahead leaving a gasping Michael.

"Jean, did I just get blind sighted?"

Jean flew forward and ignored Michael's comment.

"Wait, you're leaving me alone, too?" Michael sniffled as he reached out.

"I'm sorry, Michael. I thought you felt that I was unreliable…" Jean looked back with half lidded eyes.

"Gaaaaack!" Michael coughed out blood and fell on all fours.

 _'_ _He was LISTENING!?' Michael thought._

"Also, you don't seem pretty popular right now, so I'm going to distance myself from you. After all, I don't want them to treat me like you. Don't take it personal."

"But I am!"

"Good, I was lying."

Jean caught up with Leina and Risty as Michael cried and remained curled up in his spot.

 _'_ _Dear god…how come this happened to me!? I bet I'm the only one, who has to go through this shit on a daily basis!' Michael cried._

"DAMMIT!" Michael shouted out to the sky.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one shouting to the sky like a complete maniac.

* * *

"DAMMIT!"

In a far off and distant land, east in direction to the main continent was the much smaller island country of Hinomoto. It was a land filled with Eastern culture which resembled Feudal Japan era. Yet, this land had another face to it, its leader a young empress has been used by her subordinates that give out vile orders and do what they wish with the land.

However, inside the country, was their one last hope.

The Priestess Warriors, selfless young women, who were trained in the art of the blade and the ability to vanquish evil spirits or any invaders coming into their homeland.

But to deal with the issues occuring in their country they lie in wait inside of their shrines to prepare to send one of their own to the Queens Blade as a way of regaining their country back and restoring power to Hinomoto once and for all.

The Warriors lie in wait for their representative to return.

"LET ME OUT OF THIS PLACE DAMMIT!"

Right outside the main hall where the priestesses meditated was a large tree in the middle of their shrine, and tied to that tree was a young man about the age of 21.

He seemed above the normal height for his age, but had a very muscular and built body. His skin was pale as he had red eyes, and red hair with white streaks. He wore a traditional black haori with red trims, it was tied by a black sash and a red haramaki. He also wore a pair of brown ragged pants with sandals. Strangely enough, his right arm was bandaged heavily as the hand's fingers were tipped sort of like a clawed animal.

And leaning right next to the tree were a couple of swords, 3 in total. 2 were just your standard katana with steel blades and black hilts.

However, amongst the three, one stood out. It was an ominous looking katana with a red hand guard with a black flower pattern. Even its hand guard resembled that of a lotus, but its blade was completely different. It had a black steel appearance with a red sharp edge on the side. A bloody aura seemed to be surrounding it.

Still screaming his head off, the man shouted,

"LET ME OUT! I DON'T CARE ABOUT THIS QUEENS WHATEVER! SO JUST LET ME GO!"

"You know shouting like that will make it easier for them to ignore you." Jumping from the tops of the feudal buildings a shadow appeared and landed in front of the man.

"…!" The man got up his guard.

"What? You scared of just little ol' me?"

The dark night sky was illuminated by the lunar moon in the sky which shone its light down on the shadow to reveal a young beautiful woman with fair skin, lavender colored hair styled to keep the sides short but with a single strand kept long as the hair at the back of her head is kept much thicker and reaches down to her shoulder blades. She has lips colored lavender to match her hair, light blue eye and she holds an ample body.

She wears a short, sleeveless, dark purple tunic with black edges. The front and back of the tunic are open which shows a hefty amount of her cleavage and fully exposes her back. The tunic is kept together by a red obi belt tied on the front of her waist. On her forearms, she wears dark brown leather bracers. Her right elbow and shoulder are bare, while her left arm is covered by a fishnet sleeve and a simple shoulder plate. Her legs are almost bare, save for dark purple socks and Japanese-style tabi shoes. The most distinguished part of her outfit is the brown headband with a pair of small, curved horns. Between the horns, the middle of her fringe hangs over the headband down to just above her eyebrows. Around her neck is a dark purple choker.

"Oh, it's just the Rogue ninja…" The young man breathed out in relief.

"Hey, what kind of reaction is that? Shouldn't you be terrified that a deadly assassin just appeared in front of you!?" The kunoichi pouted and walked up to the man.

"Nope, you're not that dangerous to me, and I'm tied up. A Rogue shinobi like you isn't that threatening."

"Are you sure about that?"

In that moment, the kunoichi pulled out a kunai and pointed it at the man's neck.

"I may be a rogue, but that doesn't mean I'm not deadly."

That was when the kunoichi looked at the man's eyes and saw no fear in them at all. They were just blank and bored. It was an unusual reaction that people in his shoes wouldn't have made. Relinquishing her weapon, the ninja laughed,

"To be able to look death in the eye while acting calm, you really are the Ryo Tanaka the "Red Demon" the rumors were right, I guess. To be able to send all of your victims into the cold embrace of death as you watch them succumb to the sweet release."

"I could care less about that damn title. Now release me."

"Now why would I want to do that, huh, Mr. Demon?" The ninja stood up and leaned closer to him.

"Because I don't want to stay here."

"Okay, what if I were to say let you go. What would you do afterwards?"

Ryo could tell that meant she wasn't going to release him, but he still played along,

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe go out on a picnic with all of the friends, I don't have or may have killed, and possibly ask out this beautiful ninja, who wanted to help me out and have her bear my children!"

"Really~!"

The ninja teased.

Ryo looked at her with a neutral expression.

"No. I'm going back to where you all found me, back in my cell."

"You'd rather go back to that damp, old rotten cage where you barely get fed?"

"At least, I knew I was getting fed…" Ryo muttered.

"And you would rather trade talking with me, than with some lowly ugly prison guard?"

"Actually, Jirou has a lovely wife and a daughter." Ryo shrugged, and referenced one of the guards.

Shaking his head, Ryo growled,

"Look, I don't care just let me go back!"

"Nuh-uh, Lady Tomoe assigned you as one of guards for the Queens Blade, so you're stuck travelling with her!"

"Look, I don't follow Tomo-chan anymore like I used to. So just do her and me and favor by releasing me. RIGHT NOW!"

"No."

"DAMMIT!"

"Hahahaha, you're a funny one. Now I definitely can't let you go!" The ninja laughed.

"Hey, I'm being responsible by owning up to my crimes. Just let me serve out my life sentence in peace."

Leaning back on the tree besides, Ryo, the ninja folded her arms behind her head and yawned. She was unaware of the display she was doing with her breasts as she sat next to the strapped man.

"Life sentence, Wife smetence. Who cares about you killing people. That was in the past. Get over it."

"Yeah, I'm going to do my best to ignore that. Look, I'm actually trying to do something since it's on my conscious. We all can't be lucky like you ninja, who can take a life like killing a fly. Especially, if you were the leader of the notorious and infamous Kouma Ninjas, Shizuka."

Sighing while looking up at the dark sky, Shizuka said,

"Wow, man. Way to really cut deep."

"You're probably just saying that, so you can get me to sympathize with you, well it's not working." Ryo groaned.

"Heh, you're really are an interesting one…I'm no longer apart of Kouma and you're just a guy who wants to repent for his past killings agreed? Do you think we can be square now?"

"Only if you do me a single favor."

"I'm not cutting off the ropes."

"Then no…"

"You know, you're rather vulnerable in this position…" Shizuka crawls closer to Ryo who remained neutral.

"What if I did something which could change your mind?" Shizuka whispered next to Ryo's ear.

"You shouldn't be doing this." Ryo grunted his disapproval.

"Oh yeah? Who's going to stop me? Mr. Demon with both his arms tied up?" Shizuka slowly slid her hand into his haori and felt the muscular structure of his chest and abs.

"No, I mean you really shouldn't be doing this…"

"OK, tell me why?"

"Shizuka!?"

A feminine voice was heard approaching them in the shadows.

"Oh, boy…"

"You know I could get you out of this if you just released me and-." Ryo tried to negotiate.

"Not going to work, Handsome."

"I don't like you." Ryo gave Shizuka a half eyed glare.

"Aw, love you too, hun!" Shizuka winked.

* * *

 **Next Chapter- The Kouma Ninja vs. The Warrior Priestesses, and the reawakening of the Red Demon!**

* * *

 **Thanks for reading you guys and I hoped you enjoyed the chapter!**

 **I hoped you like the backstory behind Michael and Risty and be honest, were you guys expecting the OC to already have a child?**

 **Now we move on to actually revealing this new character's power and how he handles the attack of Hinomoto. Yes, I know he's imitating Zoro's three sword style, but dammit, does this story need a badass and I'm sticking to it!**

 **Also, what do you guys think about Jean? Personally, he's my most favorite character before Michael. Writing him is truly interesting.**

 **Now before you guys go make sure to leave a review if you want, and give me your thoughts and opinions. Plus, make sure to check out my profile and take part in the poll if you're interested.**

 **Well, I'm out, so Peace Out and have a nice day!**


	4. Chapter 4

**The Kouma Ninja vs. The Warrior Priestesses, and the reawakening of the Red-Eyed Demon Genocider!**

* * *

At night, Ryo still stayed chained to the tree behind him, but only this time, he had both wanted and unwanted (Shizuka) company to talk to him.

Sitting on the other side of the tree facing away from Ryo, was a young fit woman with long black hair tightened towards the bottom to prevent it from freely moving. She wears the standard clothes of a miko, a Japanese priestess.

"The night sky seems beautiful. Don't you just miss staring up at the stars?" The woman asked.

"They look beautiful, but I'm beginning to miss the dull gray ceilings of my cell right now." Ryo replied.

"Ryo…" The woman sighed.

Her name was Tomoe Gozen, one of the priestess warriors that defend the country from any external, internal and spiritual threats. Out of the others, Tomoe was highly skilled, so skilled that she volunteered for the Queens Blade as Hinomoto's representative with no complaints.

So as representative for her homeland, she was allowed to pick any number of companions to join her on her journey as extra protection.

Her choices were of course, Shizuka and Ryo.

Shizuka was once an enemy of hers, who sided with the Kouma Ninja, a ruthless clan of ninja who only killed for their own gain whether it was for money or for the chance of honing their craft. Though her skills were top notch amongst her clan, she was still rendered defenseless when faced against Tomoe. The two have multiple battles, but each one resulted in her loss.

These loses and Tomoe's ideology of having something to fight for drove her to defect from her clan to join Tomoe's side as a comrade as a way of realizing what power she lacked.

Shizuka's circumstances were understandable, but as for Ryo.

"You have to stop blaming yourself. Guilt will only shackle your resolve to live."

"You make it sound like a bad thing." Ryo chuckled.

"That's because it is." Tomoe said, worriedly.

"It really shouldn't be. Being weighed down isn't so bad. It keeps me in my place, and I get free food and free shelter." Ryo retorted.

"But what about your actual freedom?"

"Freedom? Ah, yes, freedom. I actually think that freedom doesn't suit me. In fact, when you come down to it. What exactly is freedom? Are we ever actually free? Like for instance our bodies. Aren't we trapping our souls? Shouldn't we let them be free?"

"Wouldn't that be considered dying?" Shizuka chimed in from the tree branch above Ryo.

"Wasn't asking for anyone else's input." Ryo grew a tick mark on his forehead.

"Didn't need your permission to state my input." Shizuka teased.

"I really don't like you." Ryo could hear Shizuka mocking him with a few 'meows' from above as she wore a kitty faced smile.

"Ryo, I'm being serious." Tomoe sighed.

"Me, too. Look, Tomo-chan, I know that you wanted me to be your escort, and I'm honored. But that doesn't mean I want to start forgiving myself because of getting this once in a lifetime opportunity."

"I didn't want you to come to just be my guard. I wanted you there because you are my old dear friend." Tomoe said

"Well, as your friend, I want to do good by you, and to do that I need you to send me back to prison." Ryo said, solemnly.

"The empress already pardoned your past crimes, you can't go back." Tomoe imposingly stood up on her side of the tree.

"Then I'll just attempt another crime to send me back there, permanently." Ryo's voice grew cold.

"So you would drive yourself to bloody your hands just to keep yourself in check?" Tomoe bit her lip.

"Yes."

Clenching her hand but then releasing it, Tomoe walks off past him and into the main shrine, "Then you will surely be coming with us. Whether you like it or not. Now if you'll excuse me. My meeting with the Head Priestess draws near."

Seeing her leave, Ryo tiredly sighed, but gasps when he felt the weight of Shizuka's body on his right shoulder.

"You know trying to act cool back there was a stupid move for you." Shizuka grinned/

"Great now I'm stuck with you?" Ryo's eyebrow twitched.

"Uh-huh!" Shizuka nodded.

"Can't you tell that I don't like you?" Ryo asked.

"Yuh-huh!" Shizuka's smiling was annoying the crap out of him.

"Then why aren't you getting that I don't want you to talk to me?" Ryo growled.

"Because I'm bored staying with those stuffy priestesses, and I'm annoying you, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Then consider yourself lucky to be my one and only entertainment in this place. Not to mention my entertainment throughout our whole quest with Lady Tomoe." Shizuka smirked.

"I still don't see why she wants me to go with her. I'm still a threat to anyone around me, can't she see that? As a priestess, she should be concerned with putting criminal in cells not taking them out of prison." Ryo spoke with a forlorn look on his face.

"Wow, you really are stupid."

"What did you say?" Ryo glared at Shizuka.

"You think she sees you as just some ordinary criminal? Wouldn't it have made sense for her to actually want you to be free since you were her childhood friend? Perhaps, she just hated to see you roll around in a puddle of self-loathing, and wanted you to actually be happy? Wouldn't that have crossed your mind?"

Shizuka flicked Ryo's ear.

"Ow! How do you even know of my real relationship with Tomo-chan?" Ryo asked.

"It's not that hard to figure out. You basically call her 'Tomo-chan' all the time and whenever she talks to you, without any honorifics, I can hear how much you must mean to her. Hmph! It even makes me jealous of you guys a little." Shizuka huffs, but leans in, "But the real question here is…who am I jealous of? Want to know a little hint?"

"No."

"Good, because I'd hate to make you feel disappointed that it's not Lady Tomoe."

"I'd care less about what a Kouma Ninja would have to feel about me." Ryo sheepishly looked away.

"Ex-Kouma Ninja. I'm no longer with them anymore." Shizuka corrected and looked a bit fed up with being affiliated with the clan.

"Right…" Ryo wasn't convinced.

"Look, it should be proof enough that me being here officially negates my membership with them."

"I don't know being the leader who suddenly quits their role as a dark ninja seems typically shady. You may have some plan to secretly backstab Tomo-chan for all we kn-."

Slamming her fist into the tree trunk in a fit of rage, Shizuka shouts, "I would never do that to Lady Tomoe!"

"Okay, but you may just be acting like that to convince me you won't."

 ***SHING!***

"I'm not." Shizuka threatened to slit Ryo's throat with a kunai.

"See? Not so fun being the one probed for their personal history, now is it?" Ryo slyly looked at Shizuka with one eye closed.

"My reasons for being with Lady Tomoe are my own. So why don't you elaborate about yourself for once without having anyone tell me about it. It saves me the time of looking for someone who does know and it saves you the hell that I'll put you through unless you don't." Shizuka pocketed her kunai and crouched down in front of Ryo.

"What do you mean by 'hell'?" Ryo slowly squinted his eyes.

Pulling out a paint brush, with ink Shizuka grinned, "So what kind of mustache do you want: a handlebar or the original unshaven look? Spoiler, that one means I color in about half of your face."

"You wouldn't."

"Boop!" Shizuka drew a dot on Ryo's forehead, "Try me."

"Grrr! Damn Kouma Ninja…"

"Boop! Boop!" Shizuka was quick to draw eyes on his eyelids right at the moment Ryo blinked.

"Hey!"

"Ex-Kouma Ninja." Shizuka pointed out.

"Sure, fine…Damn Ex-Kouma Ninja." Ryo corrected himself.

"Ah, Ex-Kouma Ninja, Shizuka the lovely."

"Don't push it."

"Okay…Boop…" Shizuka made another dot on Ryo's nose.

Groaning, Ryo rolled his eyes and began his story,

"As you already know, me and Tomo-chan are childhood friends. We lived in the same village, it wasn't a large village, but it was big enough to hold some people. It's been so long, but the name was Sengo Village. Our parents were great friends, so we grew up to be closer with each other as well. Back then there were high amounts of bandit attacks occurring all over the county and unfortunately, we were one of the only few villages who weren't attacked."

Ryo explained on, "There used to be a rundown shrine that used to preside near our village. No one would ever go there because of the various talisman that surrounded it. Everyone except for me and Tomo-chan. I was the kind of kid that loved to go on silly unknown adventures with a friend, who never wants to leave their comfort zone. Once we went in there we found nothing but old statues and mats, not to mention dust. It was so dusty that we literally had to filter the air through our teeth. By the time we went to the shrine's dais, we found a sword in its sheathe hidden underneath the dais' steps."

Ryo gave Shizuka an obvious hint and gesture to one of his nearby swords.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh, and…?" Shizuka nodded and threatened to write on his face.

"And the sword looked completely new, not a speck of dust to be found on it. But it still wasn't a kosher thing for a sword to be so clean in a shrine that old. Back then, Tomo-chan was sensitive to these bad omens probably, but I didn't know and tried to show off to her and act brave, so that she would admire me."

"Like all prepubescent boy act…" Shizuka spoke up.

"You want to know the rest of the story or keep interrupting me?"

"I'm sorry. Go on…" Shizuka giggled.

"Once I decided to take it back with me, Tomo-chan was so skeptical about me not taking it and even begged me not use it. I swore that I wouldn't, but I didn't know better and took it with me in secret. And do you remember those bandits?"

"Yup."

"They finally came to pillage our village. They were ruthless and did whatever they wanted to the people there. They killed all of our village protectors, took our heirlooms and livestock and even raped the women. Our parents hid us within my room and tried to use their bodies as shields to block the door. The screams and Tomo-chan's muffled cries was all too much, so I took the blade, opened it, and after that everything went red."

"Red? Is that it?" Shizuka asked.

"I don't remember everything, but when I came to, I found myself standing on a pile of dead bodies with my sword completely wet with blood along with the dried splotches of blood on my clothes and skin. Soon enough, I had this red hair and red eyes replacing my black hair and blue ones. But that wasn't my concern, I ran to around to see my village was in shambles with just the torn down carcasses of everyone ever knew. As time grew on I suspected that it was the bandits who did most of the damage, but each cause of death I found for corpse was made by a clean cut to their necks, torso and heads. And I only found that out once I looked at both of our parents' dead bodies. I killed them."

Shizuka remained silent and was interested in just listening.

Ryo's hair covered his eyes, "It was at that moment, I knew that I just committed a greater sin than any of those bandits. I maliciously killed everyone because of that damned sword, it was cursed all along and I was foolish enough to use it. The only survivors were myself and Tomo-chan, who was unconscious at the time and was hidden beneath the dead bodies. Soon, the Main Capital's soldiers came and took off to send us away to those who respectively requested us. Tomo-chan was taken in by the Head Priestess while I was placed under the command of one of the Empress' Counselors. I was still guilty ridden from the shock of killing my parents, so I was easily manipulated when he said that being under his command would be the exact repentance for my sins."

"I take it that didn't go too well." Shizuka narrowed her eyes at the mention of the counsel.

"Yeah…" Ryo sighed, "I only took the job as a last resort for when situations were really grave for the Country's army to handle. My prime objective was to kill any criminals that were deemed guilty by the country. I didn't get any identification to judge them myself, so I just did my job and waited for the next chance to kill someone. The bandits were my top priority, and they were the ones I always took pleasure in killing the most. During the time, I'd just blame them for forcing me down this path and took all of my hatred out on them. Until I realized that the bandits weren't the problem they were just the byproduct of it. The subordinates of the empress purposely hired bandits to raid villages, so that the army could gain more fame and credibility by later killing them off."

Ryo grinded his teeth, his old black and white views of the world crumbled, "They needed citizens to believe that the Capital's power was something to be trusted, so most of those bandits were just innocent people, who were just desperate to get any pay because of the high taxes the Empress' counselors new laws. Upon realizing this, I found that all of which I did was in the end pointless, so I decided to do one more act with the only skill I had, kill."

"And who exactly did you kill?"

"Oh, just that one counselor, who took me in. Made sure to pierce a lung or two before chopping his head off from between his shoulders." Ryo said so calmly, "And after that I was placed in jail without any defense for my actions to be justified."

"Considering that you killed a high member in society, I doubt you would have been given a fair trial or whatever." Shizuka could understand the logic behind that and rolled her eyes, _'But seriously those guys must have pissed their pants when they heard that this guy was killing them off. And probably now, they've been shaking their asses off when they heard that he's back out in the open.'_

"Getting a free card out of jail won't just change the fact that I killed so many people, and I'm capable of getting out of control if anything unexpected were to happen." Ryo groaned.

"Unexpected? That would imply that you actually have control over your urges."

"After being stuck in prison, you tend to search deep within yourself and maintain your sanity even when you're at your lowest point in life." Ryo coughed.

"So, you were bored and did that just to kill time, right?" Shizuka simplified.

"Yup." Ryo nodded.

"So why not just accept that Lady Tomoe chose you to be one of her escorts?"

"Because I'm too dangerous, and I don't want her get hurt."

Rolling her eyes once more, Shizuka groaned, "You are such an idiot."

"Tell me, why exactly." Ryo asked.

"It should be obvious that Lady Tomoe wants you with her despite you being a horrible murderer, no offense."

"None taken, I'd call myself that, too, if I were a separate person."

"See? That there. She can't stand to see you like this, and she definitely wants for you to be by her side, so that you can actually be happy for once. It doesn't take a genius to see that."

Shizuka leans in closer and rubs Ryo's cheeks teasingly, "Or in your case, a stupid idiot."

"Get off!" Ryo growled.

Laughing like a hyena, Shizuka falls back and holds her gut down in laughter.

 _'_ _But could Tomo-chan really feel that way? No, that's impossible. Not when she doesn't know that I was the killer, who ended up taking the lives of her parents.' Ryo doubted himself, and tiredly leaned back against the tree._

"Do you mind cleaning this ink off my face?"

Perking up, Shizuka wipes a tear off as her laughter dies down, "Sure, just hold on a sec."

Trying to rub it off, Shizuka only made a big mess of it, "Wuh-oh."

"Wuh-oh? Why are you saying wuh-oh? There shouldn't be a reason why you said wuh-oh." Ryo gasped.

"Look, just hold still." Shizuka licked her thumb.

"No wait! Just leave it! I'll wash it later!"

"What? You scared of a little spit?"

"Yes, that is disgusting."

Finding another way to enjoy herself, Shizuka nonchalantly looks away and says, "Well, if you want me not to clean it off just blink once then."

Ryo blinked and his eyelids showed the drawn eyes that Shizuka made earlier.

"Ah, you didn't blink so here it comes!"

"Wait, I blinked! I blinked, so st-aaaaaaaaaaah!"

Ryo's cries along with the slimy sound of Shizuka's thumb on his face echoed out around the shrine.

In a reserved shrine only kept for the Head Priestess was where Tomoe resided with the Head Priestess in a private meeting. They were discussing the vital essentials and information needed for a proper trip to the Queen's Capital.

"These maps will assist you on your journey to the Queen's capital. You have chosen on your own to participate in the Queen's Blade. We'll settle with this for making it official." The Head Priestess said.

The process of getting any of the Warrior Priestesses to be a candidate were getting slimmer by each passing Queen's Blade. The Empress' subordinates were acting out to preserve power by erasing any external links of power getting in their way.

"The young Empress is just a puppet. Her counselors are dishonoring the country. The only ones who can protect her from their clutches are the Warrior Priestesses." Tomoe understood the grave situation going on with the country's government.

"Once you win the Queen's Blade and become Queen of the Continent, you would in possession of enough power to clear the court of those traitors."

"Hai."

"Do remember that there are citizens, who blindly trust in the council and will deem you a traitor, who betrayed their country, when that time comes."

"I am prepared for that."

"We have yet to know anything further about the Continent or its western warriors. When you enter with your escorts you will be facing a different world besides our own. So be diligent."

"Hai."

"Will the lands of Hinomoto live again…?" The Head Priestess began, "Or…"

"It will prosper." Tomoe interjected, "I will be the sword that defends my homeland. Such is my destiny as a warrior priestess. I will go purify myself, now, and leave at dawn with my escorts." Tomoe resolved herself for the future fights to come and stood up.

"Then take with you the Sacred Sword, Kushinawa." The Head Priestess smiled.

"W-What? The Sacred Sword? No, I can't take such a prized relic with me. It was used by our founding leader, Kagura Fujimura. To take that would be too much of an honor. No, it would be downright heinous for me to use such a blade like that." Tomoe was completely opposed as she held the owner of the sword in high regard.

"It's worth won't compare to your life anymore, Tomoe. It wasn't me, who made the request, but the Empress, herself." The Head Priestess shook her head.

"The Empress?" Tomoe's eyes brightened, then she immediately bowed head, grateful for the chance to use such an important weapon, "My humble thanks!"

"Now let's be off to the shrine to prepare your farewells." The Head Priestess stood up, but Tomoe's stretched out hand stopped her from moving an inch.

"Wait!" Tomoe's warning quieted the entire room into silence as she felt a malignant presence closing in on the shrines. The vileness of the atmosphere she sensed made her sick to her stomach and it was very familiar presence at that too.

"They're here."

* * *

Outside, even Shizuka felt it too as she was in the middle of messing with Ryo. She immediately dropped what she was doing and looked out into the distance with Ryo, who wasn't all that concerned about the threat.

"The Kouma Ninja are coming. I should have expected that they wouldn't let this chance slip."

"So what? You can handle them. You used to be their leader and Tomo-chan has beaten you countless of times. Compared to you they're complete scrubs." Ryo yawned.

"That would be the case if this were their usual presences. But they feel different than the last time I was with them. They reek of utter malice." Shizuka held her mouth closed and looked into the distance to see a multiple barrage of red lights coming their way, "Arrows? They're here!"

Shizuka's warning echoed throughout the shrines as flaming arrows rained down upon the shrines and the priestesses who were unlucky to realize the ambush on time. Very soon the shrines and buildings were getting set ablaze by the flames and were slowly burning the shrine's stability to the ground.

They were here and if this clever show of a surprise attack was one thing it would mean that they wanted their targets to know they were there.

"KOUMA NINJAS…FORWARD!"

"HAI!"

The vibrant voice of a young man bellowed for all to hear as they initiated their infiltration.

"Dammit!" Shizuka began running to the source of the yelling to meet the enemy half-way.

"Hold up!" Ryo called out.

"What?"

"Are you serious, don't leave me like this!" Ryo growled and tried to break through the chains.

"What's to stop you from escaping if I were to let you leave?" Shizuka asked seriously, his answer would depend on her actions.

"If what you said was true then I'll eliminate these strange ninjas. If I can use this power to kill for something, then it better be for something that I actually want to protect. I won't allow Tomo-chan's quest to end right at the start." Ryo's determined expression was all Shizuka needed.

"Then here!" Shizuka used a kunai to break the lock that kept the chains up.

"Thanks…"

"…!"

 ***Shiiiiiing!***

Ryo breathed out sort of suspiciously then made a dash for his katanas and pulled one out of its sheathe and charged at Shizuka with so much killing intent that she prepared herself to kill him before he killed her.

But she stopped when he ran past her to cleave the edge of his blade through the neck of a black garbed ninja. His head rolled and dropped to the ground along with his body.

Swiping the blood off of his blade, Ryo turned around and faced Shizuka with a grin, "What? Cat got your tongue?"

"You know that was totally uncalled for, right?" Shizuka smirked.

"I know, but you deserved it. Don't ever wipe your saliva on my face again." Ryo groaned as he pulled out his other standard katana.

"Only if you promise to kill the most ninjas you can, before they jump to more desperate tactics." Shizuka said as she immediately throws a pair of kunai that impaled the necks of a few ninja about to ambush Ryo.

"Show off." Ryo sighed.

"Eh, I try…" Shizuka wore a smug smile and shrugged, "But remember to be careful when they recklessly charge at you."

"The Kamikaze tactic of suicide, I know. I'll make sure to make each swing of my blade fatal." Ryo nodded.

"Should have expected that much from you." Shizuka nodded.

"I hate to say it, but it becomes a habit when you do it." Ryo rolled his eyes in discomfort, he never knew he would take pride in that title.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!" The bloody cries of a Female Priestess meeting their end reached their ears, making them think fast on their feet.

"Listen, their formation may be to send in a large amount to deal with most of temple, but the rest will stay on the outer fringes of the forest to kill any survivors trying to flee. You stay here to support any of the Warrior Priestesses, who need help while I handle the stragglers out there." Shizuka ordered.

"Roger." Ryo nodded, _'She CAN be serious when she wants to.'_

Both of them ran past each other with their planned goal in mind: Kill any and all ninja invading the vicinity.

The flames were fanning fast because of the night wind, immediate action needed to take place before anything can be done about the ninja or else there wouldn't even be a shrine left to protect.

* * *

Within one of the burning shrine, Shizuka and the Head Priestess were surrounded by a triad of Kouma ninja, who hid within the floors and the shadows of the room. But there were more, they were just hidden within the shadows biding their time for a chance to strike.

"The Head Priestess of the Warrior Priestesses and the Warrior Priestess that defeated Shizuka-sama, no, the traitor. By eliminating you two, our clan will attain even more fame than ever before!"

The ninjas charged in, within the heat of the moment and tried to assassinate them, but their skills were quite inadequate compared to the master swordsmanship of both Priestesses.

"Such foul creatures, you are not wanted in our shrine!"

"Begone!"

It was a bright flash of steel before any of the ninjas could notice that they were losing to a couple of experienced women.

Their blood splattered and soaked the wooden floors of the shrine as their limp corpses littered the room. With most of the ones already dead in the open, the remaining ninja, who hid came out to attack, but in the end, it remained with Tomoe and the Head Priestess being the superior ones as they took any chance to take to end their lives.

"Guuuuuagh!" The cry of a Kouma ninja whose stomach was cut open fell back and breathed his last breath.

Standing back to back with the Head Priestess, Tomoe asked, "Head Priestess-sama, are you okay!?"

"I'm fine. Worry about yourself. You mustn't be caught up in these affairs, you must go to the Queen's continent at all cost!" The Head Priestess uses her katana to slit an incoming ninja's throat.

"But I can't leave you here to fend for yourself!"

"My life will be but a stepping stone for you to take. More lives will be lost like this if you don't even begin your journey!" The Head Priestess exclaimed and handed her a key, "Take it, the Sacred Sword is now yours to wield! Now go!"

"B-But…!"

Tomoe was extremely concerned and was stubborn to stay with her, but then saw the comforting smile from the Head Priestess. It was exactly the same smile that she received when she first stepped into the Shrine Grounds as young Priestess-in training.

It was exactly like her deceased paternal mother's smile, both had taken her in and have given their unconditional love to her as a parent both paternal and surrogate.

"Do not worry, Tomoe…I won't die so easily. Now go…please."

Almost tearing up, Tomoe nodded, "H-Hai!"

Rushing out of the room, Tomoe had to cleave her blade through one more ninja before successfully leaving the burned down shrine. Now all alone, the Head Priestess had to face the remaining group of ninja, who outnumbered her.

Their disgusting laughs only signified the danger the Head Priestess was in, her last moments on this earth were drawing near.

But her mind wasn't concerned about her own well-being, she just kept focused on Tomoe and smiled one last time, "Tomoe, you've been such a wonderful child, please continue living. Your life will not be your own anymore, so you must live on…Haaaaaaaaaaah!"

Charging into battle one last time the Head Priestess fought off the Kouma Ninja by herself, but due to her old age it the battle of attrition would eventually end in their favor over hers. Even after taking a few of their heads, she still wasn't capable of dwindling the numbers to her favor.

"Die you old bitch!" One ninja threw a flurry of shuriken onto the back of the head priestess, who gave a loud shriek in pain before steadily keeping herself up to cut down that ninja.

"Your running out of time, old hag." The ninjas snickered as they slowly encroached her from all sides.

"You filthy creatures…you won't…win…" The headpriestess panted as her eyesight began to fail her. There was no way that she can survive this fight at all, so she took the only precautionary measure she could think of to assure Tomoe's safety.

"If it comes to it, I'll sacrifice my own body to assure the safety of that child!" She stabbed one of their barrels filled with gunpowder to activate an explosion which destroyed the shrine and kill the remaining ninjas at the expense of her own life.

Running to the main shrine, Tomoe felt the explosion and knew it was from where she left. She took a moment to swallow her grief, but used her courage to drive herself into completing her mission.

* * *

Off in the distance within the woods that surrounded the shrine, Shizuka watched the explosion and its smoke fill the night sky, lives were sure to have been lost after an attack that big.

"Dammit…" She clicked her tongue.

"Kill the traitor!"

"Get her!"

The hearty cries of the ninja filled the forest as shadows leapt and barreled towards Shizuka. They prepared to run their blades into her through both her left and right side.

"Hmph!" Disappearing in a cloud of smoke, Shizuka evades the attack and watches as the two ninja accidentally kill themselves by running into their own blades.

"Amateurs." Shizuka flipped her hair back, then narrowed her eyes as she pulls out a sickle with a chained round weight to bluntly hit an incoming ninja in the head with the weight. Before she finishes him off by cutting his throat and leaving his dying body to crash into the ground.

"This was way too easy…" Shizuka wasn't being cocky, she was suspicious because nothing with ninja can go quite so easily, unless that was a tactic to make her go into a false sense of security.

Suddenly a flurry of shuriken were thrown at Shizuka, that she had react in time to deflect a few before jumping out of the way to avoid getting overtaken by it.

"That was almost on the mark, so it was you." Shizuka landed and faced a young handsome man with red hair, garbed in a red version of the Kouma Ninja outfit.

"It's been a while, Ane-chan." The young man wore a mischievous smirk.

* * *

"Kyaaaaaah!" Seeing the flames of a nearby shrine block the entrance, Ryo rushed over to spot a few young Priestesses-in training be trapped. The fear in their eyes, motivated him to get rid of the flames as quickly as he could.

"Quick! Get away from the door!" Ryo's demand was met as the terrified group of young girls stepped away and trembled in fear. Breathing in and out, Ryo calmed his nerves and flexed his biceps to strengthen the force of his blades.

 **"** **Niitoryu: Gale!"**

With a mighty swing of his blades, he created a strong shockwave of wind to put out the flames blocking their way. As soon as they were able to leave, they flocked towards Ryo in a desperate plea for security in the hands of an adult.

"T-Thank you, mister!"

"C-Could we stay with you!?"

"I-I don't wanna die please!"

Groaning with a tired expression, Ryo nodded, "I never thought I would be a babysitter, but…okay…fine. But you all have to stay in front of me."

"In front, but why?"

Noticing something, Ryo threw his katana past the questioning girl, so that the blade could impale the heart of a Kouma ninja trying to kill her. They were all amazed and frightened at the spectacle as Ryo walks up to him and pulls out his bloody blade.

"So I can watch each of your backs. I'll find someone to get you all out of here, if I can't do that, then I'll have to personally watch over all of you until this passes over." Ryo explained, "Now let's get moving!"

"H-Hai!" Though the young girls agreed, their cries were not the least bit assured.

 _'_ _These children haven't been around this much carnage before. This might come as a shock to them, knowing that they will have to deal with this later in their lives. But that's just reality, and I'll make sure they'll live long enough to learn about it.' Ryo wipes the blood off of his katana and proceeds to watch over the warrior priestesses-in training._

* * *

"Lady Tomoe!"

"Everyone, to the main shrine at once!"

"Hai!"

"Very well, Lady Tomoe!"

Making it out of the burning shrine to encounter her fellow Priestesses, Tomoe began to make haste for the Sacred Sword's main shrine. But their path was once again hindered by the Kouma Ninja, and by the looks of their vast numbers it looked to be their entire force.

 _'_ _This needs to end!' Tomoe looked to each priestess and nodded with them._

"Loyalty and patriotism! Cherry blossom formation. Warrior Priestesses of the Masakado shrine. The destroyers will be destroyed!"

Getting in place in a solid defensive formation, Tomoe and her guardians unsheathed their weapons and stood around each other to lessen any attacks meant to ambush them. It proved to be effective since none of the ninja made a move to attack, but after a small pause they didn't seem to be moving at all or even breathing.

 _'_ _This presence, it's getting more and more vile by the second. What are they doing?'_

A horrific transformation took place before their eyes. The ninjas' bodies were losing their original form and breaking down into a disgusting slime that began to form a massive sphere of pure dark aura. The sight was grotesque as the priestess were at a loss of words. Soon enough the black aura started to reshape itself into a Giant Demonic Toad.

"They've given up their humanity to turn into a demon!?" Tomoe's eyes were widened in shock.

* * *

The sound of metal clashing filled the forest as Shizuka and her brother fought their battle with their chain sickles and ninja tools. Throwing the weight of her sickle, Shizuka easily smashes the tree truck of a tree where her brother nearly landed next to.

"You fool! You would desecrate the honor of our clan by using those Forbidden arts!?" Shizuka shouted, "The ninja art of demon transformation comes at a cost of your humanity! By doing this your twisting the clan into a wicked image."

"The times have changed. Shinobi must change the image of the era to continue to dabble in the arts to create new techniques. War, genocide, or even assassination, we must always be at the top of our game to improve!" Shizuka's brother laughed.

Shizuka uses a kunai to try and impale her brother who narrowly dodges it and tries to cleave her in half with his sickle.

"What's wrong, Ane-chan? You would have done the same had you stayed loyal to the clan. But yet, you decided to side with these prim and proper priestesses." Shizuka brother mocked, "I am creating a new age for our clan!"

Looking a little guilty, she said, "I know. I would have eventually been led to do the same thing, but I was able to see things in a different light with the power I now want to hold besides the power that I used to hold. The new age that your speaking of is, but an illusion! You're just signifying the age of the Kouma Ninja Clan's end!"

"Shut up!"

The two sibling clashed once more as they used their kodachi to enter close combat.

"Just why did betray our clan in the first place? Did they threaten you? Bribe you? Just tell me!"

Shizuka smirked at her brother's curiosity and said, "It's much more than that, and it didn't take much to sway me on their side. They just make me aware of who I am and what I was doing. Lady Tomoe showed me that to show true strength, you mustn't just be working on your craft for the sole purpose of it. You need a main drive, something to protect, and with that you basically gain enough power to outrival those who would want to destroy it."

Shizuka spoke with a reminiscent look in her eyes, "Yes, when we clashed blades, I figured out that was what she fought for all along, and it brought shame upon me knowing that my reason for fighting was just for the sheer thrill of heightening my skills!"

"Pathetic! You truly believe such petty beliefs will change anything in this country!?"

"I don't know yet! But so far, I actually believe that Lady Tomoe has a chance of the winner of the Queens Blade!"

 ***GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!***

Their blades danced all over the forest as they tried to attack and kill their respective user's enemy.

* * *

"Protect, Lady Tomoe!"

"Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuah!"

The Priestesses charged in with their naginatas and blades in hand to fight off the Giant Toad Demon, but their attempts were in vain because of the toad's thick slime coating its body. Any time that their blades so much as touched it, they would break apart so easily.

 ***CROOOOOOOOAK!***

Taking a deep croak, the demon spewed out a purple liquid toxin at the priestesses.

"Watch out!"

"Ngh! It burns! It burns!"

Sacrificing themselves a few brave ones stood in the way and used their bodies as shields to block the toxins. But it proved fatal because of the toxins burning through their clothes and eventually through their skin the process.

But it wasn't over yet, the Giant Demon spat out its long, thick flexible tongue that whipped and smashed the life out of the defenseless bodies of the Warrior Priestesses. It was a repetitive attack as it continued to mow down its enemies left to right.

"Lady Tomoe, the carnation formation!" One of the few remaining Priestesses suggested.

"Please, we have no other choice!"

"No…the price for that formation involves using your own spirits as conduits for the attack!" Tomoe shook her head.

"Lady Tomoe, please we cannot hesitate!"

"…Ngh!" Tomoe bit her lip, she wanted to avoid the loss of any more lives, but saw that she had no choice.

"Carna-!"

"Look out!"

Tomoe was about to begin, but the cries of the Priestesses brought her attention to the swinging tongue about to slam into her. It was too close of a call to even consider about dodging and hit from it would almost be crippling for her stature.

 **"** **Niitoryu: Heavy Downpour!"**

In that instance, two flashes of steel cut the demon's tongue in two pieces as it nearly hits the Priestesses. Running to stand in front of priestess was Ryo with both his swords out and readied to be used to finish off the creature that was writhing in pain.

"Ryo!" Tomoe smiled in relief.

"Don't stoop yourselves to their level! Killing yourselves off will only hold it back! Now go! I found some children in a shrine, and left them in a safe place in the woods before I found you lot!" Ryo growled as he stared down the Demon Frog.

But the Priestesses weren't so willing to comply.

"The Priestesses-in training?"

"We can't leave yet!"

"This demon must pay for the lives that it took from us! We will stay here and fig-!?"

Snapping at the Priestesses, Ryo shouted, "Does it look like I give a shit about what you want to do!? Sure you lost some of your comrades in front of you, but think about the children, who would eventually become your future! If they die, then what!?"

"B-But-!" One Priestess wanted to say something, but Tomoe grabbed her shoulder and shook her head.

"Please go watch over the children, I'll stay here and vanquish the Demon Frog." Tomoe smiled.

"Lady Tomoe…okay then…"

The Priestesses had listened to their leader and went off in search of the children.

"Ryo, I still have to do something. Hold it off until I get the Sacred Sword!" Tomoe began running for the forest where the shrine holding, Kushinawa was held.

"No problem, pretty sure its pissed at me anyways!" Ryo growled as the Demon Frog croaked and tried to spew more of its toxins at Ryo.

"That's not going to work on me froggie, **Niitoryu: Reinforced Gale!"**

Swinging his swords, but with much better ground, Ryo created a large shockwave which not only stopped the toxins from reaching him, but also sent it back at the demon.

Unfortunately, due to its slimy body, the Demon Frog was not scathed by the toxic acid.

"This will be harder than I thought." Ryo rolled his shoulders.

* * *

 _'_ _I'm almost there!' Tomoe's running helps her reach a small shrine surrounded by tall trees. It was so well maintained and cleaned because of the treasured blade which sleeps within it._

Opening the door, Tomoe partially leans against the doorframe out of breath, before making her way towards the katana propped up in the middle of the room. The weapon had an ornamental design in the hilt and hand guard as small bells were attached to the bottom of the hilt.

"Kushinawa…" Tomoe sat down in front of the blade and tries to unsheathe it, but found that it wouldn't come out. The blade was completely attached to its sheath. Detecting the high traces of aura around it, she figured out that the blade would not allow anyone to just use it.

"To wield this blade, I have to be resolved enough to stake my own life on the line." Tomoe realized the truth and tried to resolve herself, but the thoughts of the Head Priestess dying along with her fellow priestesses clouded her mind. The fear of death it was getting to her again and it wouldn't stop since she started even envision her own possible death.

"I can't…everyone's counting on me and I can't even resolve myself to do this!" Tomoe broke down and grew frustrated with herself.

"DAMMIT!" The sound of shouting and a huge explosion caught her attention as she ran outside to see a huge ball of flames fill the Shrines. The Giant Demon Toad was using a dark liquid which fanned the flames to increase in growth.

"That scream was Ryo's!" Tomoe immediately took the sword with her, and made haste to the shrines.

 _'_ _Please be okay!' Tomoe's mind was fuddled with worry and fear. If she were to lose more people precious to her then her motivation would surely be lost._

* * *

"I can't believe how rusty I've gotten…" Ryo coughed as he was covered in burns and surrounded by the flames in one of the burning shrines. The damned demon smacked him into it with the side of its tongue.

The fight was really one-sided once Ryo figured out his blades had little to no effect on the Demon Frog. The thick slime broke each of his standard katanas, and left him with the one he detested to use the most. With no other way to defend himself, he tried to evade most of the attacks thrown at him. The toxic acid and the swinging tongue were rather slow and predictable attacks safe for its hidden technique.

A technique that allowed it to spew oil and ignite it to triple the damage. He at first didn't notice the quick spurt of oil and was shot into one of the remaining shrines before it lit on fire and exploded.

Looking at the last remaining sword he had, Ryo's expression grew dark as he clenches his hand into a tight fist. Having to rely on the sword that plunged him into this unforgiveable cycle of carnage was eating away at him, knowing that in the end it would always be the only final solution he'll have.

Slowly pushing himself up, Ryo bursts through the burning building just as it was about collapse and faced the Great Demon Frog.

"It appears you've given up your humanity to get this power, Kouma Ninjas. But I'm afraid to tell you that, I've long already given my own humanity and innocence to the devil within this blade."

Ryo slowly grasping the hilt of the katana, as it's bloody aura slowly crept up his arm, then enshrouded his entire body. His mind was started to go red like it had before, but then for some reason the screaming of someone familiar caught his attention.

"Ryo, you're okay!" Tomoe called out as she rushes over to him.

"Tomo-chan? Look out!" Noticing that the Demon frog was about to attack her, Ryo tackles her and helps her dodged a scalding torrent of oil and flames.

"Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah…" Tomoe nodded as she takes Ryo's hand to stand up.

"Were you able to attain the Sacred Sword?" Ryo asked.

She nodded in response.

"Then lets handle this demon together." Seeing that his hand was still on his sword, he decided let go of it and face the demon, "I'll act as the decoy while you finish it off. That sword must have some holy properties that can kill it and-!"

"I can't do this…"

"Eh?" Those words caught Ryo by surprise, "You can't do it?"

"Kushinawa can't acknowledge me as its wielder if I'm not resolved enough to die. I'm afraid to die…" Tomoe's eye grew teary as she covered her mouth, "I'm pathetic…everyone else is willing give up their lives for my sake, but I'm a coward, who can't even pull through for herself when things get too drastic. I wasn't worthy enough to live up to everyone's expectations. The Head Priestess, my allies, the Empress, and even Shizuka, how can I possibly hope to protect anyone if I'm so pathetic." Tomoe cried as the pressure of taking being Hinomoto's representative started to take its toll on her.

"So you're afraid that you're failing everyone before you even started on your journey?" Ryo asked, he could sense the guilt in her voice, and said, "Tomo-chan, you're letting your fear of what if's cloud your mind. You can't expect yourself to carry such a heavy burden and be okay with it. We're human, well, you are actually, and you just need to overcome your fear and do what comes to you in the end." Ryo smiled and patted her shoulder.

"Ryo…" She looked into his eyes before looking away, she knew he was trying to help, but found the notion really difficult to do alone.

Noticing that she was thinking that way, Ryo groaned, "But don't think I'll let you handle it alone. Let me take apart of it so you can get the hang of things. I'll even overcome my own burden if it helps you, so let's do this together!"

Ryo stuck out his hand and gave her a warm smile. The same smile that he used to give her as child. This sentiment toughed Tomoe's heart as her tears stopped, and were replaced with a big smile of her own.

"Hai!" Tomoe took Ryo's hand and got helped up onto her feet.

 _'_ _I can't believe how cool I tried to look. Now I'll have to actually put some effort into actually forgiving myself.' Ryo's grip on the katana's blade tightened as a crimson aura surrounded his body as red rune tattoos slowly etched itself into his skin,_

 _'_ _It's been a while hasn't it,_ _ **Muramasa?**_ _I still haven't forgotten your cravings, so be patient. This time, I'll sate your appetite with something better. The blood of countless humans fused into one demonic entity.'_

The aura surrounding the blade, thickened and vibrated joyfully as it heard the promises of its user. Though it may have been a weapon, it seemed to have a mind of its own as it actually reacted to Ryo's words.

"Ryo?" Tomoe blinked worriedly and watched Ryo's body physically change as his hair grows wilder, his eyes growing sharper to imitate that of a lizard's eyes. Even his teeth grew sharper giving him a menacing look as he stood tall to face the Great Demon Frog.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Right now I'm actually mellow so I won't go out of control. Remember, I'll take on my own problems with half of your burden. But you still have your end of the bargain to keep so…you ready to stake everything on the line!?" Ryo still kept his bright smile on his face as he reassured Tomoe.

"Yes!"

"Even your own life!?"

"YES!"

Syncing her resolve with the Kushinawa blade, she was finally able to get the blade's consent to wield it.

"Please give me the power to protect my country! Kushinawa!" Pulling the blade free from its sheathe, Tomoe revealed it's bright and illuminating blade completely covered in its holy power.

 ***CROOOOOOOOOOAK!***

The Great Frog Demon's throat started to expand to prepare another scalding gout of boiling oil.

"Tomo-chan!"

"Right, I'm with you the whole way, Ryo!"

Right as the Frog spewed its boiling oil and lit it ablaze, Tomoe and Ryo evaded the attack by rolling to their opposite directions as they charged straight for the Giant Frog Demon that was completely vulnerable for the deciding blow.

 ***Chnk!***

 **"** **Ittoryu Iai:-!"**

Sheathing his sword and gripping the blade tightly, Ryo slowly leaned into the demon as Tomoe lead with Kushinawa's blade at the ready as she held it over her and imbued within it more power.

 **"** **The supreme fatal stroke of a Warrior Priestess:-!"**

 ***ZAAAAAAAAAAN!***

 **"** **Ichi!"** A quick draw of his blade tore through the frog as Ryo sheathed Muramasa back into its sheathe.

 **"** **Helmet Clever!"** A powerful downwards cleaver attack broke through the demon's thick slime and tore its very core in half.

The Great Demon Frog was cut in half, its body couldn't take the sheer power of both Muramasa's malicious aura and Kushinawa's sacred holy aura. Breaking down the frog's body began to turn into dust.

It was finally over, they won.

* * *

"What is this!?" Shizuka's brother noticed the destruction of the Great Demon Frog and growled, "How? The Kouma Ninja were supposed to be victorious!"

"…Heh!" Shizuka smirked, his distress over the demon's defeat gave her an opening she could take. Flash stepping to disappear from the sight of her brother, she hid amongst the shadows.

"W-What?" Shizuka's brother gasped and was too late to react to the blade that was about to stab into his spine, "You bi-Aaaaaaugh!"

Blood spilt out of the wound and sprayed into the air before falling on the ground and it's source, Shizuka's brother has fallen and wasn't ever going to get back up ever again.

"Curses…I can't believe I let my guard down…especially to a traitor like y-you…!" Shizuka's brother grunted in excruciating pain.

Standing over him, Shizuka pulls out her kodachi and held it above his vulnerable body. Just one more strike was needed to end this sibling squabble for good.

"Any last words." Shizuka asked, in the end he was still family to her, even if they were enemies she still felt obligated to listen to any words he wanted to say.

Spitefully spitting blood at her face, her brother coughed, "None to a dirty traitor like you! And enjoy this victory while you still can…hehehe…we may have failed to eliminate Tomoe Gozen, but that won't be the end of it. We aren't the only ones, who sought to take her life, you'll see true hell after leaving this country! Your righteous babbling about her doing this for the sake of the country is nothing, but romanticized words just words. Remember that Ane-chan…"

His last words were obviously spiteful, but Shizuka paid no mind to them as she held the blade readily and said her farewells,

"Make sure to save a seat for me down in hell, little brother."

 ***STAB!***

* * *

The conflict with the Kouma Ninjas had ended in the Warrior Priestesses victory, but for a great cost as about half of their members were killed by the siege along with their greatest asset, the Head Priestess. The remaining warrior priestesses were able to find and protect the children priestesses-in training long enough for the battle to end.

The burial of every priestess, who died during the fight was held at dawn. The grief that the warriors felt was quite heavy, especially for Tomoe, who tried to act strong for the sake of her position. But once Ryo recounted how it was okay to shed tears for lost loved ones, she instantly broke down and embraced him much to his surprise since, he wasn't prepared for it.

Along with the extra hug, he received from Shizuka, who knew he would be flustered and eventually mad for her unneeded appearance.

Eventually, the trio went to the docks and resumed with what was originally planned: Traversing through the land of Gainos to participate in the Queen's Blade.

Their farewells were made quite swift, but drawn out at the end when Ryo was crowded around by a group of admirers from the young priestesses-in training that. They were quite smitten with him after he protected them from the Kouma ninja. They even provided him a gift of two katanas as a payment for his help, and also to replace the ones that he lost.

As they boarded their ship and sailed on to the Queen's Continent, Ryo looked over at the deep blue waters while sitting on a barrel. The gentle waves were calming his nerves, he seemed to believe that actually leaving the country to some strange new land will lighten his stressful guilt.

"Hey~! Whatcha doin'?" Shizuka popped up out of nowhere and slung her arm around his shoulders.

 _'_ _So much for settling my nerves down…' Ryo growled to himself._

"Ocean watching…" Ryo groaned.

"You're looking at the water, huh? How boring. Your boring." Shizuka poked fun at Ryo.

"Sue me. We're in the middle of nowhere by now, so don't judge me for actually trying to find something to do." Ryo pinched his temples.

"You look to be okay with this."

"Of course, like I said I'm bored."

"That's not it." Shizuka shook her head and noticed a change in Ryo's disposition,

"You're acting much more liberated than before. You're not going on about how you should go back to prison anymore and being a total threat. What changed?"

"Nothing changed. I still believe that I should be held back by chains, so that I won't hurt anyone."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but something else popped up that I can't ignore. By secluding myself, I almost forgot that I would eventually lose any hope of being connected with Tomo-chan. She needed me to help and if I wasn't there then things would have ended badly. So, I decided to finally come along for this trip, so that I can be there to support her for once. It'll actually be some sort of repentance for all the terrible stuff I put her through."

"Wow, that was pretty deep…nah! You sound really cheesy, you know that?" Shizuka poked Ryo's forehead.

"Don't touch me!" Ryo grinded his teeth.

"So, you two were here." Approaching them with a long face, Tomoe joined their conversation, "What were you two talking about?"

"Tomo-chan!" Immediately standing up, but then coughing, Ryo asked, "How are you? Are you finally okay?"

"Yes, I was able to meditate to calm down." Tomoe still had that long look on her face.

Patting her shoulder, Ryo smiled, "Don't worry, we're still here with ya."

"Yeah, so enough of the glooming and the boo-boo-boo, let's cheer up, pam-padam!" Shizuka wrapped her arm around Tomoe and playfully prod at her to cheer up.

"I'm pretty sure you made those words up on the spot." Ryo groaned.

"Nyan~!" Shizuka playfully meowed like a cat which brought out a smile and a small laugh from Tomoe.

"Teehee!" Tomoe giggled.

"See? There we go!" Shizuka laughed herself as Ryo simply smiled, his old friend was finally perking up and that was enough to brighten his mood.

"But wait a minute, we're going into uncharted lands." Shizuka curiously thought out loud as she placed a finger on her chin.

"I was able to acquire an old mainland guide about the continent." Tomoe pulled out the guide.

"Let me see." Ryo took it and opened it up.

"How old is it?" Shizuka leaned over to look at it.

"About Two hundred and fifty-six years ago!? I'm surprised this scroll lasted this long without wearing out! This thing is absolutely outdated." Ryo gasped.

"Will using this really help us get to the Queen's Capital?" Shizuka asked.

"It says that the people there sleep on their heads, that takes great strength and discipline to accomplish. These western warriors mustn't be underestimated." Tomoe's eyes brightened with the amazement of learning about the fighters she'll be facing in Gainos.

"There's even this weird greeting they do there. It says: 'Zdra-stbooy-te'. What the-? It's like a tongue twister! 'Zdra-stvooy-t-!' Ouch my tongue…!"

While Shizuka and Tomoe enjoyed their time reading the guide, Ryo said to himself with a serious look,

"Western Warriors. Besides Hinomoto, there are warriors the likes I've never seen before. In a new land where anything can happen. I wonder what kind of people we'll meet on our travels there."

* * *

"Achoo!" Wiping his nose as he walks by Risty's side, Michael says, "Phew! Where did that come from? Probably someone talking about me."

"Disgusting. Don't stay near me after doing that." Risty said with disgust.

"What? It was just a sneeze." Michael growled.

"You may think it's just that. But it could probably be a result of how stupid you are, and it could very well be contagious if you sneeze like that." Risty covered her mouth and nose.

"Well, good luck catching it. It appears that those, who are already idiots can't seem to catch it." Michael said to himself.

"What the hell did you just say?" Risty growled and raised her fist.

"Nothing…nothing…" Michael shrugged and looked away.

Watching their squabble from behind, Leina and Jean decided to stay back as they witnessed another debacle between the pair. Leina wanted to speak up, but found that it would be difficult get a say in while Jean was just downright lazy to do anything.

"Hey, Jean. Shouldn't we do something about them?" Leina asked.

"*YAWN!* Why? This is natural." Jean yawned, as he watched Risty smack Michael behind the head after he tried to frighten her with a sneeze to her face.

"Natural? But wouldn't it help if we could sort things out between them?" Leina asked.

"This is their problem, and how they handle it is their business. Outsiders like us have no say in how they should treat each other." Jean leaned back into his floating pillow and rested.

"Outsiders…?" Leina wondered then realized something, _'But this alone is really not helping them to get along. If only Michael would just tell Risty about his donations to the chapel and his true feelings, then Risty would understand. She would probably even make up with him, and rekindle their romance.'_

"Maybe I could do something…" Leina said to herself.

"Hm…?" Jean lazily opened one eye to look at her.

"N-No, it was nothing." Leina defensively waved her hands around and smiled.

One way or another, she would get those to make up and return to having their former relationship back together. The Checkpoint out of the Vance county was near, so it would be a perfect opportunity for her to act out her plan.

* * *

 **Next Chapter- Don't meddle in my affairs! At a crossroads, the Benevolent Bandit parts ways with the Wandering Warrior! Leina's journey through Gainos takes a rough start! Part 1**

* * *

 **Hello, guys, I hoped you enjoyed the chapter!**

 **I can tell that your wondering 'Hey, this wasn't said in the original anime/magna' well, I just decided to expand more upon the story. Since to me, it could have been presented much better. And now we've gotten to meet our 3** **rd** **main character, who holds within his possession the Cursed Demon Blade,** ** _Muramasa._**

 **So how do you guys like Ryo so far? I know he's a bit angsty, but he'll grow to be a more likeable character as the story progresses. And not to mention, I like the way I portrayed his and Shizuka's conversations. Expect more and** ** _more_** **development of their relationship as the story progresses too.**

 **Now onto the next chapter, whoops, it looks like Leina is about to get into some personal business and from experience when you're trying to make up your friend's relationship, the best thing you could do is just walk on the street and get hit by a bus…or any vehicle, I don't discriminate. So, stick with me a little longer to see what happens, 'kay?**

 **Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, so I'll see you all later! I'm Out so Peace Out! And have a wonderful day!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Don't meddle in my affairs! At a crossroads, the Benevolent Bandit parts ways with the Wandering Warrior! Leina's journey through Gainos takes a rough start! Part 1**

* * *

Travelling along the pass, Michael and his companions were nearing the checkpoint out of Vance Territory. The journey was met with no detours, or dangers after their departure from the Orphanage.

For Leina, she had a bit of trouble passing through the winding steps on the pass due to her past encounter with Melona on them. In fact, who was to say that she wasn't already back plotting to get revenge on her? So many doubts raced through her head as she failed to take a single step forward.

However, watching Leina's hesitation, Risty gave the girl a little push.

"Come on. Why are you stopping in front of us like that? Go! Go!" Risty literally gave Leina a push and knocked her down.

"R-Risty? What do you think you're doing?" Leina grunts as she picks herself up.

"Apparently something because you just stopped right in front of me." Risty said.

"That's because…" Leina worriedly looked out towards the mountain cliff in worry.

"Look, I already told you, didn't I?" Risty groaned before grinning, "I promised you that I'd escort you to the checkpoint, and that means that I won't let anything harm you until we get there!"

Helping Leina up and wrapping her arm around her shoulder, Risty laughed, "So stop getting so scared, and liven up a little! You're finally about to leave the territory to enter the Queen's Domain. Very soon, you'll be a free woman."

"I thought that I was already a free woman?" Leina sweatdropped.

"You are, but now you'll be a FREE free woman!" Risty laughed.

"Geez, you just make things more complicated than they need to be, Risty." Leina groaned.

"Your welcome." Risty winked.

Rolling her eyes, Leina smiled, she no longer felt as anxious as she did before. Thanks to her new companionship with Risty, she was able to get over any fear she had, plus, learn more about the world which exists out of the territory. It felt as if…she was an older sister regaling her tales of adventure to her, unlike her real older sister, Claudette.

Not just Risty, but also Michael and Jean, those two were a likeable duo that she grew to love being around. Although, she's still new to the whole adventure thing, she was able to get some advice from them to lessen the stress that would usually effect beginners.

"Hey, what are you two doing down there? You better hurry because we're almost at the checkpoint! Hey, is Risty slowing you down, Leina!?" Michael shouted from the top of the stairs with Jean floating by his side.

"Can it! I ain't slowing anyone down here, and who the hell even asked for you to call for us, dumbass!" Risty snarled at the man.

"Excuse me…I just wanted to check up on you guys…" Michael groaned, "And I was just joking…"

"Why, you're not funny." Jean yawned.

"One of these days, Jean…one of these days…!" Michael clenched his fist in anger.

"Can you believe that guy? Spouting off crap like that?" Risty shook her head as Leina simply laughed at the usual antics of her group. Things had gotten to follow this kind of routine since they began travelling from the orphanage, and Leina absolutely loved it, she felt as though her travels would be set if she had this group accompanying her at all times.

However…

"So that little comment you made back there…" Risty quickly approached Michael from behind with a glare.

"Yeah, what?" Michael sighed.

"Don't you what me!" Risty socked Michael at the back of his head, "I heard what you said about me holding Leina back! Where do you get off!? You trying to make me look bad in front of her, or what?"

"Like I said it was a joke, and besides if it did come to that I would have offered to carry you to the checkpoint myself!" Michael exclaimed, but received another hit to the head, "Knock it off!"

"Because of you, the moment was ruined between me and Leina! That comment of yours almost made me lose my credibility!" Risty growled.

"Coming from someone, who's technically a thief and steals money and important valuables on a daily basis." Michael muttered to himself.

"What was that?" Risty clenched her fist.

"Nothing…nothing…bitch…" Michael whispered, and walked faster.

"I heard that!" Risty trudged on to keep up with Michael and argue.

"Good, I wanted you to!"

"Who do you think your talking to like that? I'll kick your ass!"

"Then do it!"

"I will."

"I'm waiting."

"Oh, it's about to come when you least expect it!" Risty shouted.

"Oooh! I'm shivering in my boots!" Michael shouted.

Leina found that the adhesive that would hold the group together was already slipping because of those two always arguing. She found that a solution would be necessary to mend their relationship which would in turn be good for everyone, so they could stick together.

 _'_ _I have to be precise when I tell Risty about Michael's feelings and his actions with the chapel, or else things will fall apart. It would probably be a good idea to tell her once we've been separated from Michael.' Leina nodded._

"What are you thinking so hard about?" Jean asked.

"O-Oh, hi, Jean! I was just thinking about how amazing this place looked! I never really go to see it because of Melona, remember that?" Leina said in a panic.

"I see, but that look on your face was more of focused thought than admired thought." Jean deduced.

"Well, that's only because…I-I…!" Leina was fishing for something to say.

"Save it, I'll figure it out myself without asking you, but *YAWN!* that could take a while. I still need to take my mid-morning/pre-midday nap." Jean yawned and floated ahead.

 _'_ _Side note: Make sure to tell Risty once Michael and Jean aren't nearby.' Leina gulped._

Finally crossing the last bends of the mountain pass, they were finally able to spot the checkpoint straight ahead. The castle like wall which divided the Queen's Doman and the Count's territory stood tall as various houses, stores and marketplaces filled the entire checkpoint.

"Made it…" Michael stretched his arms, "Thought we'd be delayed by something stupid before getting here."

"I know, but too bad we had something stupid that progressed with us on our way here." Risty said.

"I get the distinction that you're talking about me, but I'm just going to let that comment slide…" Michael crossed his arms and grew an angry tick on his head.

"All we need to do is pass this and we'll finally get out of this place." Risty patted Leina on the back.

"Yeah…" Leina couldn't believe it, she was finally going out into the outside world. After making it this far, her mind wandering to various things, but the only question which popped up in her mind was,

 _'_ _What am I going to do once I enter the outside world?'_

Landing on his feet, Jean wiped his eyes and said, "Stay on guard, we may almost be out of the clear, but we first have to get into the checkpoint before leaving. Michael and I have our passports to enter and leave the territory, but you two still lack ones. How are you planning on entering?"

"Couldn't we just buy new ones?" Leina asked.

"Passports aren't cheap. Pooling all of our money together will only get us one." Michael rubbed his chin in thought, "So what now?"

"Don't worry, I knew this was going to happen, so…" Pulling something from betwixt her breasts, Risty pulled out two small booklets, "I created some forged passports the night before."

Everyone just stared at Risty with deadpanned stared, well, save for Jean, who always looks that way.

"Wow." Michael shook his head.

"I'm not even surprised." Leina sweatdropped.

"What? How else did you expect I got into the territory?" Risty growled.

"Yeah…but still…to think you'd steal money, but never used it to buy a passport. Talk about che-!" Michael looked away, but Risty pushed him aside, "Ouch!"

"Just take it, Leina. We can't just let you use your real name to pass through, or else your family will get word of this." Risty explained.

"O-Okay…" Leina nodded.

"Can we even say that news of the Castle's incident even reached this place, yet? It doesn't seem like security is cracking down on people entering." Michael wondered.

"That may be true because…" Jean pointed to the lack of flags raised over the checkpoint walls, "The Vance flag isn't raised, yet. This place usually raises the flag of nobles, who pass through here. So, I think it's okay to assume that we're safe. For now, at least."

"I just hope we're gone before Claudette or Elina arrives." Leina sighed.

"Enough with the moping." Risty slapped Leina on the back before pulling out a gold coin, "We'll be fine, but let's see what fate says. Heads, we'll manage to get away."

"What's tails?" Michael asked.

"Tails, Michael will be the only one captured." Risty said, seriously.

"I-I'm feeling very attacked from you this morning, Risty…" Michael sniffled.

"Now let's begin." Risty flipped the coin and watched it hit the ground with Leina until it randomly landed on one side, "Looks like we're in luck."

"Wait a minute…" Leina narrowed her eyes as she knelt to pick up the coin, "Both sides of this coin are the same."

"The luck is always good." Risty smiled.

"This wasn't luck at all, you just cheated." Leina groaned.

"You can say that, or you can say that I made my own luck." Risty shrugged, "Leaving things to fate all of the time isn't beneficial. Which is why we have to make our own luck to get through challenging tasks. Just like you did back at the castle." Risty winked.

Leina looked for any other opinions, but found Michael agreeing with Risty's logic with a nod.

"Okay, then. I see…" Leina tried to hand the coin back to Risty.

"Ah, keep it. You'll need it more than me." Risty rejected the coin.

"No thanks, I don't want to be the one indebted to you this time." Leina laughed.

"I'm not going to put it over your head. Leina, just take it. Any money is good money, and if you want to explore new places, then you need money to get what you need. In fact, I think it's only appropriate that we get some gear for you before getting out of this place." Risty smiled.

"Really?" Leina asked, excitedly.

"Really, hey, dumbass! Give me some of your money to get equipment for Leina." Risty held her hand out towards Michael.

"W-Wha-? Why me? Why can't you use your money?" Michael sputtered.

"Because I wasn't the one who wanted to free her in the first place. So, you'll have to at least try to take responsibility for her because after this little trip of ours is over, we're splitting paths from here! So, cough it up, or else I'll make you cough up blood!" Risty threatened.

Hearing Risty talking about her leaving the group, Leina felt a bit saddened. That just motivated her to do her plan even more.

"If you're so desperate then why not ask Jean, too! He's got tons of money that won't spend here!" Michael gestured to Jean, who was already gone.

"Hello, I would like to enter the Checkpoint." Jean pulled out his passport, "Here's my passport."

"Thank you, you are permitted to enter."

"Thanks." Jean bowed his head, then entered.

"When did he-?" Michael froze in place.

"Hand it over." Risty relished in the man's despair.

"Damn it…" Michael sulked.

"Sorry…" Leina whispered, in pity for the man.

* * *

Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched under the imperious eye of Claudette, who had just arrived at the Checkpoint about a day ago. She decided to traverse there alone, so no attention would rise from the presence of her army. Also, should word of her coming here were to have reached the ears of the group below her, then they would have found an unknown method to her for passing the checkpoint.

Refusing to use the Vance flag still have her the advantage. If they know that no one here was to oppose them, then they would leave their guards down; leaving a chance for a successful surprise attack.

Sadly, even she would have an issue should she face them by herself. The numbers were against her, and the diverse skills that the three accompanying Leina had were still quite a mystery for her. So, striking them separately would be a proper tactic to take. Unfortunately, that would be difficult due to Claudette's forward stature as a swordsman which is why some help was in order.

"How childish. All of this over some adventure?" Claudette said with disdain.

"So, is that her?" A sly voice spoke in the shadows.

"Yes, Leina Vance, she is your target of capture. Use any means necessary to bring her back to the Count." Claudette said.

"Oh my, she's quite cute…and looks delicious…"

"May I remind you that she is to return to the Count unharmed. That includes her staying "undamaged" Mercenary." Claudette sighed.

"Shame, but even with that restriction, it only leaves me with the excitement of finding what I "can" get away with." Walking out of the shadows, the figure slowly revealed itself to Claudette, "And the others? What do you wish to do with her companions?"

"Whether you kill the bandit is up to you, but those two that are with her are another story. Incapacitate them, and try to bring them in for questioning. The explosion on the castle was probably their doing, and I wish to interrogate them for their reasonings." Claudette explained.

"So, what I hear is…" The figure approached the window and placed her sights on both Michael and Jean, "I can play around with them as long as I keep them alive?"

"Yes."

"It would appear that taking this job was actually a good idea for me to stumble across such fine toys for entertainment. Not to mention some toys that I played around a little before…" The figure looked at Michael and Jean in interest.

Revealing themselves, the figure turned out to be a voluptuous woman who had dull green hair with white tipped bangs and red eyes. Her noticeable trait were her pointed ears, signifying that she was of a different race. She wore a white, vest-like top with a snake-themed collar and a simple pattern on the back, the vest also has one red gem on each breast surrounded with a spiral pattern. The collar also has fur and she wears turtle shell shoulder plates with a red dot on the back of each. She wanders around with no underwear, only using her pet snake Keltan as a substitute. Her armor bears a snake motif. On her legs, she has white shin-guards with dull green thigh-highs underneath.

"Now, I wonder which one I should play with, first?"

"I don't care about your enjoyment. Just make sure that Leina is captured and taken back home at once. Understood, Echidna the Wild Elf?" Claudette said with a hint of menace in her tone.

"Loudly, Thundercloud General." Echidna kept her eyes focused on the slumped down young man and eyed him in interest, "…It would seem that I found my first target."

* * *

Surprisingly pulling it off with their forged passports, Risty was able to enter the Checkpoint with Leina in tow.

"Whew, I thought that they would catch onto us." Leina wiped her forehead in relief.

"You sound surprised." Risty smiled, sheepishly.

"Of course, I didn't really expect this to work since it's your handiwork after all." Leina playfully said.

"Handiwork which still got us in." Risty flicked Leina's forehead, "Remember that."

"Fine, fine. I admit that you're the sole reason that I was able to leave the territory, so thank you. It was all because of you." Leina rolled her eyes.

"Damn straight it was." Risty said confidently.

"Oh, yeah…it was entirely Risty, who got you here because I remembered her saving you from that Slime Demon and deciding to take you out of your castle. Oh, wait that was me!" Michael angrily shouted.

"N-Now I never said that you didn't contribute anything, Michael. I want to thank you for helping me get here, too." Leina waved her hands in a panic.

"Yeah…it's not like you didn't contribute anything, Michael. However, you did contribute the least when compared to me." Risty cheaply laughed at Michael.

"Coming from the woman, who gave me an ultimatum to follow her, or leave Leina at the castle!" Michael growled.

"Look, I admit to that, but why the fuck would I have cared about someone else when my own life is on the line. Besides, all of this is coming from the guy, who abandoned me to deal with the Thundercloud General alone. Had Jean not arrive when he did then I would have been sent back to that prison, then executed!" Risty growled back at Michael.

"She's not wrong." Jean stretched back and lazily looked at Michael with one eye.

"F-Fine, I admit that true, but my point still stands about you just leaving Leina." Michael crossed his arms.

"Typical, you pass admitting to your fault and turn the subject back to favor your stance! You've always been like that!" Risty bumped foreheads with Michael.

"Oh, and you're any better?" Michael growled.

"Better than you at least!" Risty exclaimed, "At least I know how to take responsibility when its needed unlike you!"

The comment needed to sink in before anyone could react. Both Leina and Jean stayed quiet as they watched the fight between the two slowly settle, and soon enough their bickering came to an end once they stood apart, turning away from each other.

"Let's just go find an inn…" Michael sadly sighed and looked to the side.

"Whatever…lets go, Leina." Risty walked past Michael and Jean leaving the two alone.

"W-We'll try to rent rooms for you two as soon as we get there, so take your time, okay?" Leina said.

"Thanks." Jean nodded.

"Leina! Let's go." Risty called.

"Coming." Leina bowed her head and followed the bandit.

Left alone with each other, Michael and Jean stood in silence as Jean simply watched Michael for any response. After scratching his head with a faraway look on his face, Michael said, "Hey, Jean, do you think that I did the right thing?"

"Be more specific."

"You already know what I'm talking about."

"Yes, but by not fully asking the question. Then I can't really give the appropriate answer." Jean shrugged.

Groaning, Michael said, "Okay, do you think I did the right thing about keeping my own secret agendas from Risty, and ruining things with her?"

"I don't know." Jean shrugged.

"Boy, what an appropriate answer." Michael tried to joke around.

"I'm serious." Jean began to lead Michael by walking ahead, "I don't know much about being in love the way you are. I'm not in your position, so I can't really say you did the right thing by rationalizing this. To you, you feel like you did so much unnecessary damage to the one you love, and that's correct, but I'm not going to put you down by saying you did the wrong thing. That's up to you and you're emotional burden to handle, not mine."

"Is this leading to something because…?" Michael didn't really get much from Jean; more so than he usually does.

"It will if you just stay quiet. What I'm saying is you decided to do what you did because you wanted to assure the safety of Risty and Soma in the long run, right?"

"Yeah." Michael was walking up to speed with the shorter man.

"Then just continue to do what made you take this route of action. My only advice is never waver with a critical decision you make or else you'll create more regrets than you can emotionally handle." Jean hesitated for a moment before patting Michael on the arm, "Besides, I didn't choose to travel with an undecisive idiot, I wanted to travel with a hard-headed idiot."

Looking at the spot that Jean patted, Michael smiled, "Thanks, Jean. I really appreciate it."

Looking away with some indifference, Jean said, "If you really appreciate it, then help me look for something that I misplaced here a couple of days ago."

"Sure, anything to avoid going to the inn for a while. So, what did you drop that was so important? One of your beakers for experiments? That freaky magic book that your mother gave to you that's called the…?"

"The Enchiridion of the Damned." Jean answered.

"Yeah, that one."

"No, I still have it, see?" Jean calmly pulled out a large demonic looking book with a living face on the cover with a decrepit smile.

"Okay, okay! Put it back! There's kids out here, man! What? You want to give them nightmares or something!?" Michael pushed the book back into Jean's bag while avoiding to touch the book's jagged teeth.

"The fear will help them grow." Jean said with a blank look in his eyes.

"N-No, hell no! Quit it with that creepy talk! Man, I forget how creepy you act like your mother." Michael inhaled sharply.

"That's because she's a veteran witch." Jean answered.

"I know, she tried to take half of my soul and all of that jazz, but back to the point. What did you lose?" Michael said.

"Oh, nothing special, I just misplaced a demonically possessed staff that I've been working on." Jean shrugged.

 **. . . . .**

"You lost a what!?" Michael screamed, but kept his voice down once he started to attract the attention

"Do I have to repeat myself? I'm already too tired to continue talking right now…" Jean yawned.

"You're telling me that you lost that creepy ass staff with the tentacles?" Michael worriedly asked.

"It can also use the elemental magic ability of fire once it latches onto a host. Its primely composed of the fragmented souls of the fire demons that we faced during our travels. So, whoever it latches onto will supply them the ability to use fire magic at cost of their own mana." Jean explained.

"So, this thing can drain the life of whoever touches it?" Michael grabbed his head in frustration.

"Probably, but it won't kill the host unless it finds a new suitable one to stay with… It might be a little aggressive, but that's because I haven't finished tuning it out to be an adequate weapon." Jean shrugged.

"Why were you even making so demented in the first place?" Michael asked.

"I have my reasons…" Jean pulled out the Enchiridion and began to word out what he's writing, " _Prototype DW #1: Funikura will be on standby until found. Record any signs of behavior once captured for tests."_

"What did I say about this!?" Michael forced Jean to put away the book and said, "We have to find that thing quickly before it harms someone!"

"I know that's why I asked you to help me." Jean reiterated.

"Okay, Jean, I got it. So where did you leave it last?" Michael asked.

"*YAWN!* Man, I'm tired…"

"Jean!"

"Look, the last I remember was us screaming and running from some restaurant because some snake attacked. From there we got pickpocketed, and I lost that staff." Jean shrugged.

"Hmm…seems to be the only lead we have right now, so let's go look for it as quickly as we can, Jean." Michael rushed ahead, "I think I remember which restaurant it was! Come on!"

"I'm literally behind you.

Taking his time, Jean used his powers to levitate after Michael.

From the rooftops of the buildings, stood Echidna watching the two men run around the city. Just like mice to a snake, they would soon get preyed on by her soon enough.

"That adorably cute display back in the restaurant was quite fun to watch, but I wonder, how will this mouse fights when his back is to the wall?" Echidna licked her lips in anticipation as she slowly prepares a couple of daggers. One way or another, she'll weigh the overall skill of the man before taking any action to complete her job, she was in no rush. She intended to enjoy every single experience it would provide her.

* * *

 **Next Chapter:** **Don't meddle in my affairs! At a crossroads, the Benevolent Bandit parts ways with the Wandering Warrior! Leina's journey through Gainos takes a rough start! Part 2**

* * *

 **So, what do you guys think of the chapter? So far things will be placed into parts for this section since I don't want to keep writing and drag everything out, so I'll do it in these suitable parts to keep you guys entertained!**

 **So, what do you guys think of Jean's talk with Michael. He's a very neutral character, but still shows his support for Michael as a friend. He may still come off as weird along with his implied background with his witch mother and all that freaky stuff he carries, but it's for a reason down the road. He'll have a chapter dealing with how he and Michael met one day, but I hoped you enjoyed he chapter!**

 **Next chapter will raise the stakes for the chapters to come after it! I hope you all have a wonderful day and stay safe!**

 **I'm Out so Peace Out!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Don't meddle in my affairs! At a crossroads, the Benevolent Bandit parts ways with the Wandering Warrior! Leina's journey through Gainos takes a rough start! Part 2**

* * *

 **Skit: You wanna talk about it?**

* * *

 **Risty: …**

 ** _Leina:_** **_(Risty hasn't said a word since her outburst. Its actually gotten a bit awkward just walking around in silence.)_**

 **Leina: Say Risty, are you okay?**

 **Risty: …**

 **Leina: Risty?**

 **Risty: What!? What the hell do you want?**

 **Leina: U-Um, I was just asking if you were fine is all.**

 **Risty: If I were fine then I would have responded sooner, ya know!**

 **Leina: R-Right, I'm sorry for bothering you…**

 **Risty: *Exhales!* Leina, don't apologize, I shouldn't take my anger out on you. I'm just in a very bad mood.**

 **Leina: N-No, I understand, but Risty can I ask you something?**

 **Risty: What?**

 **Leina: Do you hate, Michael?**

 **Risty: … I hate how he breaks his promises. I hate how he always keeps secrets from me. I hate how he tries to still act like he cares for me despite…**

 **Leina: I see…**

 **Risty: But that's not all, I hate how tries to avoid visiting the Orphanage, avoiding those sweet children. Avoiding his very own child. He's such a coward and it makes me sick to my stomach!**

 ** _Leina: (But Risty, despite that he does care about Soma and those children… He just doesn't want to tell you for some reason that I can't understand…)_**

 **Risty: Tch, lets just focus on getting our rooms at the inn, I'm starting to get a bad taste in my mouth.**

 **Leina: Okay… Ah, wait, Risty, you still haven't answered my question. You only told me the things that you hated about him. So, do you truly hate him?**

 **Risty: *Sigh***

 **Leina: Or could it be that you still-!**

 **Risty: That's enough, Leina. Look, I like you and all, but please stay out of my business. My only response to that is once we're done preparing ourselves, we'll all be going our separate ways.**

 **Leina: …! I-I see, well, sorry…**

 **Risty: It's fine but lets at least try to have some fun before we leave. As soon as we check in, I'll take you around town and give you some tips about how to survive out on the road, cool?**

 **Leina: Thanks, I… appreciate that very much, Risty.**

 ** _Leina looked down in sadness: (Are we all really going our separate ways?)_**

* * *

"Come on! Surely you must have spotted something!" Michael screamed as he banged his hands at the front desk of the restaurant that he and Jean once visited. Their attempts at finding Jean's creation was a no go, so they decided to ask the Owner for any sightings.

"I'm sorry sir, but we haven't seen anything as unusual as that for a while." The Owner shook his head.

"Are you sure? Because the thing had tentacles wriggling around it and it could have attached itself to any person close enough to it." Michael gulped.

"Yes, sir, we're sure that no one was assaulted by tentacles." The Owner said, awkwardly.

"*YAWN!* You know, I actually remember bandaging it so it wouldn't move freely." Jean wiped his tired eyes.

"Really? That's great…" Michael sighed in relief.

"…No, it isn't because we still haven't found it yet." Jean turned to the Restaurant Owner, "Did anyone suspicious pass through here and did they walk out with a bandaged staff?"

"To be honest, I don't remember someone doing that…" The Owner muttered.

"Of course, you didn't…" Michael groaned.

"But…I do recall having this weird patron come in wearing some revealing clothing with a snake wrapped around her waist." The Owner said.

"Wait, a snake!?" Michael gasped as he remembered their mugging with said snake involved.

"Hm? You figure out, who stole what you're looking for?"

"Nope, but I have a lead on who mugged and embarrassed us the last time we were here." Michael growled.

"Oho! So that was you two? That was hilarious the way you ran off screaming! My customers and waitresses couldn't stop laughing and talking about that for days!" The Owner laughed and pointed at the two.

"Why I outta…" Michael rolled up his sleeve.

"We'll worry about that later. Now is there anything else that seemed off?" Jean asked.

"And you! You're the one who ran off screaming like a little girl! Hahaha, everyone's still talking about you even no-!"

 ***SHIIING!***

Transforming his pillow to a pitch black, demonic looking spear, Jean used his levitation magic to point the spear inches away from the Owner's neck.

"Don't make me repeat myself." Jean said, slowly as it was hard to tell whether he was being threatening or just plain lazy.

"E-Excuse me for my rude behavior! W-Well, we actually had a waitress of ours quit recently if you want to know!" The Owner shivered in his boots.

"And how is that relevant?" Jean decided to change the form of the spear back into a pillow as he held it under his arm.

Given some time to breath, the Owner said, "Well, if you're interested I can inform you of a strange occurrence that happened with her before she left."

"Hm, fine… I guess that I'll stay here and listen. You can still look around outside just in case." Jean said.

"Got it… Hold on, wait a minute… You're not going to stay here just to slack off while I do all of the dirty work are you?" Michael crossed his arms.

"…" Jean looked around, silently, "No, now shoo…"

"..." Michael simply gave Jean a wary look and pointed at him in suspicion as he left.

"Now where do I begi-huh?" As the Owner began, Jean climbed up on the desk and laid upon it with his pillow.

"Sssh! Don't rush things, I enjoy hearing bed time stories when I feel comfortable enough…" Jean yawned and shushed the owner as he snuggled into his pillow.

* * *

With no leads to go on, Michael aimlessly searched the perimeter of the restaurant. Including the streets in front and the alleys around it. There were no signs of it anywhere, and even when he asked the denizens, who live around or in the alleys, they all gave him the same answer of never spotting such a strange staff.

 _'I can't believe that no saw the damn thing! I mean how can you miss such a strange suggestive looking weapon!? Ugh, I did not need this right now not after that stuff with Risty… I guess I'll just…' Michael's thoughts were interrupted from the familiar sound of hissing._

Slithering into view from behind a couple of barrels, was a green scaled snake as it peered up at Michael before slithering off.

"You…" Michael said, quietly as he followed it down the alley. He knew it was dangerous to follow it since its owner could be around to try and steal from him again, but with no leads to follow, he decided to put his bets on finding the staff from his past pick pocketer. As he continued to follow the snake, he noticed how far he was getting from the Inn as the alleyway grew much darker and narrower as time passed on.

Finally coming to a stop, the snake quickly retreats from Michael's sight, leaving the man to cautiously look around himself. He couldn't detect a presence nearby, but he could tell when he was being watched as a sense of real danger caused him to tense up.

Grabbing the hilt of his blade, he waited for any signs of movement to be heard. Nothing, well at least at first, but eventually a rush of footsteps could be heard coming towards him.

 _'Finally!' Michael quickly spun on his heel to face one of the walls of the alley, this way he could keep watch of both paths. Strangely though, he couldn't tell which way they were coming from and it didn't help that those footsteps were getting louder by the second._

 _'Come on, where are they coming from?' Michael quickly looked between both of the paths, he knew that there was no other way to get approached without going through this one-way path._

That was what he originally thought before he looked up into the sky above, "Wait, no, they're coming from-!"

"Surprise~!"

"…!"

 ***GIIIIIIIN!***

As soon as he realized a shadow came from above and pulled out what appeared to be a curved long sword with the features of a snake. Though it was a tad too late, he was able to unsheathe his blade and block the blow and push the shadow back.

"Aw, and here I wanted to surprise you~!" A sensual voice belonging to a woman giggled.

"Well, you certainly did!" Michael caught his breath, "At least I was prepared to react properly this time!"

"My, my, how honest of you! Young boys that wear their heart on their sleeves are so much fun to play around with. Choosing you first was actually the right choice since I can easily see you being my type." The voice purred.

"As if I'll be happy to hear that from a thief! Now show yourself already!" Michael growled.

"Well, if you insist…" Emerging from the shadows, Echidna walked into the light in an alluring manner, "Its finally nice to properly make your acquaintance, Michael Chevalier, you can call me, Echidna if you'd like."

"…" As soon as Echidna came into view, Michael's eyes instantly fell upon choice of attire or rather her lack of attire with a surprised look, "O-Oi, what the hell are you doing? Why are you naked?"

"Why, I showed myself just like you demanded…" Echidna licked her lips.

"I didn't ask for you to show yourself "that" way!" Michael growled.

"Oh my, are you perhaps embarrassed?" Echidna teased.

"Who wouldn't after seeing, …Urh… I mean, yes I am!" Michael paused to stare a bit more before clearing his thoughts.

Laughing to herself, Echidna couldn't help but be entertained at the young man's honest personality.

"My, my, you truly are earnest, aren't you?"

"Enough!" Michael pointed his blade at the half-naked woman, "Look, I'm here to get answers and you definitely must have them so I'll be doing the talking, okay?"

"Aw, and here I thought that you wanted me to use my mouth? Well, I won't turn down your offer to use yours." She may have sexually implied that, but it was obvious that she was toying with him.

 _'Just ignore her.' Michael shook his head._

"First, were you the one who mugged us from before?"

"It was such a thrill to see you squirm as ran away from my pet~!" Echidna responded.

 _'That's definitely a yes.' Michael groaned._

"Second, when you did mug us did you perhaps steal a demonic looking staff along with our money?" Michael asked.

"Actually, I did notice something like that, but I decided to leave it alone since watching you and your friend run off crying like scared little piggies was more entertaining." Echidna just kept on prodding at his rising anger.

"I see, so you don't have it after all…" Michael inhaled sharply to calm down.

"Now is that all you wanted to ask me, Baby Chevalier?"

"Why yes, yes it is." Michael nodded.

"Good, so then why don't we-?"

 ***CLAAANG!***

"A bit forward aren't we?" Echidna immediately clashed blades with Michael, who rushed her.

"You may not know have Jean's experiment, but that doesn't mean I'll let you walk off just like that! I'm gonna get back the gold coins you stole and drag you back with me to question you on why you decided to attack me, in first place!" Michael grit his teeth as he slowly pushed Echidna back.

"Oho, so you're both an honest and smart boy? I really hit the jackpot now!" Echidna quickly backed away into the shadows of the alley.

"Dammit!" Michael cursed himself for letting an opportunity like that get away, he could tell that he had the edge over Echidna when it came to raw power, but noticed that she was particularly much faster than him. Meaning the task of actually catching her will be too difficult.

Immediately being thrown from behind him were a couple of curved daggers meant to plunge into his back. Sensing the threat, he immediately used his Onyx Blade to swat the projectile weapons away only to notice a terrifying presence from behind his twisted back.

"Be careful?" Echidna's blade was a mere few inches from penetrating Michael's spine, but a quick change on the grip of his sword forced Echidna to retreat into the darkness again as Michael attempts to thrust the sword into her, backhandedly.

 _'That was too close…' Michael thought, 'No, that should have been the end of me? If she were serious then she could have actually crippled me…'_

"I suggest that you lessen any unnecessary movement, boy, or else I won't be able to enjoy myself for very long." Echidna playfully giggled, but the threat was still ever evident in her statement.

 _'So she's actually toying with me? Hm, maybe I could use this to my advantage, but a quick problem…'_

 ***GIN!* *GIN!* *GIN!***

Coming from different directions, Michael struggled to block each of Echidna's incoming attacks. As she bounced off the narrow walls of the alley as she swung a merciless barrage of strikes from many different directions.

 _'She's not letting up at all! I can't get any room to breath and-!' Michael prepared to retaliate as soon as he believed he spotted her, but was interrupted from an attack to the right, 'I can't really track her down as soon as she fades back into the shadows like that. Her presence almost seems to disappear…'_

"Come on, show me a good time, boy! I want to see the power that rattled the Thundercloud General but so far I have yet to notice why she was so cautious of you!"

"What, Claudette? You mean she hired you to-! Guh! Dammit!"

Echidna tripped Michael up by striking his blade twice before resuming with her merciless assault once more. This alleyway was literally her home turf; her territory, and she was making the most of playing with this lost little mouse before finally delivering the final blow.

"You know, boring me like this isn't really smart. Now actually show me something worth fighting you for before I dispose of you like a toy."

If she wasn't serious before, she was now, and considering how he didn't have the room to breathe, Michael decided to show her a very **good** time.

"Fine then!" In between her attacks, Michael stabbed the Onyx Blade into the ground as he surrounds himself in a ring of jet black aura.

"What?" Echidna gasped as she was in mid-attack before the aura began to intensify.

 **"Onyx Field!"**

 ***BOOOOOOOM!***

The aura grew intense until it bursts into a minor explosion that picked up a dust of cloud. With her sight hindered, Echidna back away while covering her mouth.

"Well, that was certainly new, but I expected more…" Echidna coughed.

"Sorry its pretty hard to perform while under stress…" A pair of silver eyes shined through the dust cloud behind Echidna.

"…!" The Wild Elf immediately thrusted her blade at Michael, who barely dodges it as the sleeve of his jacket gets torn. He grabbed Echidna by the wrist and forced her to release her blade while slamming her to the wall by grabbing her by the neck.

Breathing heavily, Michael growled, "Got you…"

"Mmmngh… I don't know whether to feel irritated because I fell for such a simple ploy like that or thrilled that you actually made an innuendo." Echidna tried to tease the boy, but found his grip on her neck and wrist tightening.

"Quiet!" Michael pressed her against the wall more roughly, "Now start talking! Why did you bring up Claudette earlier?"

"Mmm, harder…" Echidna playfully moaned as she grinded her on Michael's leg that was pressed up between her legs.

"Enough with the games, I'm serious!" Michael growled.

"Who says that I'm not being serious? Getting pinned by such a strong boy like you has me really excited." Echidna purred as she defiantly gazed into Michael's eyes with a hint of lust.

"You-!" Michael growled, he wasn't in the mood for her games and was this close to knocking the Elf out.

"Frankly, I'm surprised how you're not serious enough to pay attention to your surroundings." Echidna winked.

"What are yo-! Gah!" Michael winced in pain as he looked down to notice that the same snake from earlier bit into his ankle. Thankfully, it wasn't deep enough to penetrate through his boots, but the pain was still ever evident.

Using this as her chance, Echidna pulled out one of her daggers and-!

 ***STAB!***

"H-Huh?" Michael felt a sharp pain filling his abdomen as he noticed the blade that Echidna plunged into him.

"It certainly was fun playing with you, boy." Forcing the blade forward into his bleeding wound, Echidna forced Michael to stagger back to the other wall of the alley as she pressed herself against his trembling body.

"I can see how you startled Claudette, and for showing me a good time…Mmmm…chu…" Echidna leaned forward and overlapped Michael's bloody lips with her own. It was more of a one-sided kiss as she had to hold up him before finally releasing him and letting him fall limply on the ground.

"Next time, lets do a grown-up kiss, promise, boy?" Echidna winked at the young man slowly bleeding out on the ground. Looking to the snake slowly slithering up her leg, she cooed, "Thanks for supporting mama, Keltan…"

As the snake wrapped itself around her waist as a substitute for proper underwear, Echidna knelt down next to Michael and rubbed her chin, "Now would be the time where I handed you over to the Thundercloud General, but that would be too lackluster. No, perhaps I could use you like this to rile up that other friend of yours and Leina… I could gain their ire and gain twice more fun playing with them as I did with you."

 _'I-I can't move…' Michael coughed up blood as he blearily looked at Echidna stroking his chest._

"Surprised? I took cautionary measures and made sure to drench the blades that I used with some poison. I couldn't have you move freely or else you would make me some trouble." Echidna giggled as her hand traced itself up to stroke Michael's bloody chin. The sight of the man helplessly looking up at her was much more of turn on than him pinning her to the wall. Her prey had been caught and now it was time for the predator to decide his fate.

"Claudette did say to bring you back alive, but never said anything about making sure that you were "undamaged". Perhaps, I should take my time with you before getting the other two." Licking her lips, Echidna sensually rubbed his chin before making it journey down his neck, chest and stomach towards his crotch.

But before she could even make contact with it.

 **"Pinaka, First Form, [Diablos Spear of Death]!"**

Firing from out of a magic circle, was a black-demonic spear that forced Echidna to parry it with her nearby sword.

"Oho, it appears that another target of mine has come to me instead of me to them." Echidna laughed as Jean floats of the portal wearing a lazy yet angered expression.

"Echidna, the Wild Elf Mercenary, what a pain… I take it you're here to take back Leina for the Vance family?" Jean asked.

"Wow, you two are indeed smart! I guess toying around with you mentally isn't going to happen anytime soon. Well, at least for you, but you're friend here needs a little medical attention." Echidna gestured to Michael.

"I'll take care of that after taking care of you…" Jean threatened, tiredly as he raised his hand and pulled his spear from the ground and had it levitate to point at the Elf.

"Interesting…" Echidna prepared herself to pounce at the brown haired young man before looking at Michael once as a thought lingered in her head. Smirking, she lowered her stance and sheathed her sword.

"You know what, I'll come back for you two another time." Echidna said.

"Why?" Jean suspiciously narrowed his eyes at her.

"Well, I'm obviously too winded from fighting the boy and it seems logical to flee rather than attempt to escape with the boy dragging me down so I'm done for now." Echidna shrugged.

 _'…She's not lying, but I can tell that she still favors this outcome.' Jean thought before closing his eyes in compliance._

"Fine then, go."

"I'm pleased that we can come to an agreement, bye-bye~! Oh, and make sure to try and cure him of this poison before its too late. I originally planned to give him the antidote after turning him over to Claudette but since he's back with you then you can solve that issue, right?"

"…" Jean annoyed at the prospect, glared at the elf and said, "Just. Go."

Without another word, Echidna fled and bounded off the rooftops to who knows where.

Sighing, Jean floats over to Michael's side and examines the would and the faint inklings of poison in his pool of blood. After examining it, his eyes widened in shock before calmly closing them as he whispered,

"Idiot… Going off on your own like that…"

"*COUGH!* S-Sorry, I really botched this one up…" Michael weakly laughed before finally falling unconscious.

* * *

"…!" Dropping what appeared to be a couple of apples at a fruit cart, Risty felt a deep disturbance. She didn't know what it was, but it was strong enough to block out the loud fruit cart sellsman cursing her out while Leina tried her best to apologize and pay for the dirty produce.

With her thoughts racing from the disturbance, she worriedly muttered, "What the hell…?"

* * *

 **Next Chapter- Don't meddle in my affairs! At a crossroads, the Benevolent Bandit parts ways with the Wandering Warrior! Leina's journey through Gainos takes a rough start! Part 3**

* * *

 **Well, I hoped you enjoyed the Chapter!**

 **I'm out so peace out and have a wonderful day!**


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